Ariana P
DeSousa
May 2024
Ariana P
DeSousa
Assumption University Froelich School of Nursing
Worcester
,
MA
United States

 

 

 

She spoke to the patient with so much care, patience, empathy, and compassion that the patient allowed her to take her vital signs. In fact, she would only deal with Ari for the next eight hours.
Ariana received four nominations from clinical faculty and her nurse preceptors. The first nomination described Ari’s passion for continued education, her leadership among peers, and her lovely attitude. The nominee concluded with: “Thank you for the opportunity to work with Ari.”

The second nominee used words such as confident, compassionate, professional, and empathetic and exclaimed that all of these “will make Ari an awesome nurse.”

The third nomination described Ari as “self-motivated with great nursing judgment and someone who serves as a great example of the Assumption nursing program.”

Finally, is a story from her former faculty member who walked us through a rainy morning shift at St. Vincent Hospital. The faculty member received the patient assignment, and the word “difficult” was assigned to this patient. In fact, the patient had fired everyone who was assigned to care for her. She writes, “What happened next was one of the proudest moments as a clinical instructor I have ever had.” Ari walked into the patient room, and the patient was wearing a Stand Out glittery gold jacket. This jacket matched her vibrant personality. I began to explain what the objective of the day was, and she swatted me in the head with a “get out.” Ari was minimally phased by what happened. She spoke to the patient with so much care, patience, empathy, and compassion that the patient allowed her to take her vital signs. In fact, she would only deal with Ari for the next eight hours, including allowing Ari to bathe her, something that had not occurred in the many shifts prior. The gold jacket was momentous to the patient, and Ari went out of her way to locate a hanger and carefully hang the jacket up in the patient’s closet, whereas many nurses would throw it in the closet or on the chair." She concludes with the following statement, “Ari was able to accomplish more than my 12 years of experience was able to do, and more than what many seasoned nurses had been able to accomplish in weeks of caring for this patient. This is a story that will remain engrained in my soul.”