Janelle Maloney consistently demonstrates care and compassion while caring for her patients. This specific experience comes from when Janelle was a freshman and we were on a med-surg floor, and she was assigned an elderly woman who had very early dementia and was awaiting hip replacement after a fall. Janelle went into the room as soon as she got her patient assignment and attended to all of the patient’s immediate needs. The patient was slightly confused, so Janelle made sure to reorient the patient and lower her bed, and put her bed alarm on. Janelle then got report on her patient and began her head-to-toe assessment. During her thorough assessment, she noticed that the patient had very reddened, excoriated areas under her breasts extending into her abdomen. As she continued her assessment of the patient, Janelle found out that the area was very tender and causing the patient a lot of discomfort. She immediately informed me as her nursing instructor and the primary nurse. The primary nurse was overwhelmed and stated that she had not noticed the excoriated area earlier in the shift. Janelle suggested speaking with the doctor about ordering powder or cream for the area, which the nurse said she would. Janelle made sure that the patient was given a thorough bath and enlisted the help of her peers to ensure the patient remained as comfortable as possible with her hip fracture. Janelle spent the rest of her time up until we went to dinner in the room with the patient, as the patient said she was scared to be alone without her daughter there, which exacerbated her pain. Janelle had also noticed that as the patient became more anxious, she seemed to become more confused. The patient even asked Janelle if she could refer to her as her granddaughter because of the comfort, care, and reassurance that Janelle had been providing and because she always wanted a granddaughter like Janelle. When it was almost time to go to dinner, Janelle stated that she was worried to leave her patient because she had just gotten her comfortable and did not want her to worry and become anxious. Luckily, the patient’s daughter arrived, and we left the floor for dinner.

As soon as we got back, Janelle checked with the nurse about the powder for the patient’s chest and the nurse stated that it had finally gotten ordered by the provider but had not come up from pharmacy yet. Janelle went down to the pharmacy to pick it up so that the patient would not have to wait any longer. We administered the powder when she returned to the floor and I was able to have a conversation with the patient and her daughter at that time. The patient could not say enough wonderful things about the way Janelle had treated her and was so pleased that Janelle had cleaned her feet the way that she did because no one in her facility had provided her with that much care in a long time. The patient said Janelle made her feel like she was being pampered. The daughter was equally as grateful and stated how her mother could not stop telling her about the wonderful care that Janelle had provided to her. We ended the night with Janelle giving the patient a hug before we left the floor. Janelle was going to be somewhere else the next day and would not return for another week.

A week later, when we arrived on the floor again, the patient was still there and was due to be discharged the next day. While I did not assign that patient to Janelle, she made sure to go in and check on her after she had completed the necessary tasks she had with her assigned patient. When the patient saw Janelle entering the room, she exclaimed, “My adopted granddaughter is back!” and reminded her daughter about how wonderful Janelle had treated her the week prior. The daughter confessed that her mother had told everyone in her family about how wonderful Janelle had been to her and that she was so glad to see her because they had gotten a thank you card for Janelle in hopes that their paths would cross again. It had a very nice handwritten note in it expressing the gratitude they had for her. Janelle went back in to wash and soak her feet again that evening, which the patient thought was the best thing in the world. I truly believe that if the patient’s family knew about this award, they would have nominated her. In our time together, Janelle consistently demonstrated a level of care and compassion that exceeded many of her peers. She was always willing to help others out and support both patients and her peers. She goes the extra mile for patients and ensures that their needs are being met.