Keira
Hines
May 2024
Keira
Hines
Quinnipiac University
Hamden
,
CT
United States

 

 

 

To her surprise, at the end of the shift, when she went to say goodbye to him, he thanked her for her care, very emotional, telling her that nobody had treated him with the same respect she did since he was admitted to the hospital.
Keira demonstrated commitment to compassionate care for all her patients early on during the clinical fall semester of 2023. She has established positive relationships with her patients and peers and is building trust and mutual respect along the way. She has shown me that despite being petite, she is not afraid of meeting challenges. In her first clinical semester, I assigned Keira to a male patient admitted to the hospital status post-fall. After getting a report from the night shift nurse and meeting her patient, she asked me for insights on the patient's case. I remember asking her to look at the patient's chart and, research his case, and then come back to discuss it. After researching the patient's case, meeting him, and performing her initial assessment. She then asked me about his pain regime, and we discussed why he was receiving certain medications and not others. Her expression was like a light bulb went on in her head, and she explained that it now made sense based on what the patient disclosed to her. Long story short, the patient also had a medical history of behavioral health, which initially intimidated Keira, because he was refusing care. I encouraged her to reapproach him, treat him like any other patient, and offer him compassion, care, and respect and see how he would respond to that. In my experience, many students would shy away from this challenge. She returned after a while and shared with me that the patient had allowed her to help him with bed baths and changing the bed linens, she even applied lotion to his right leg and arms. She was so proud of herself, as she should have been. To her surprise, at the end of the shift, when she went to say goodbye to him, he thanked her for her care, very emotional, telling her that nobody had treated him with the same respect she did since he was admitted to the hospital. I know that this experience will forever stay with Keira, as she experienced herself that promoting holistic patient-centered care not only changes who receives the care but also who gives it. Keira Hines deserves the DAISY Award for her selfless caring for this patient experience, who had lost trust in caregivers until he met her and helped him restore trust and compassion towards himself and others.