I’m generally not one to gush. I appreciate being well taken care of, but I don’t usually go out of my way to sing someone’s praises above and beyond the scope of their jobs. Then, I met Makinsey Schmidt. She was my nurse advocate for a procedure yesterday to see if I needed stents placed in my arteries or perhaps even a heart bypass surgery. Perhaps she sensed my anxiety, but the way she described for me all the ways in which she’d have my back before, during, and after my procedure was instantly becalming to me. My wife and I asked a lot of questions, and she answered each of them with care, compassion, and, perhaps above all else, clarity. I understood what I was headed into yesterday so much better after Makinsey answered my questions.

After the procedure was over, she stayed with me through the entire process of slowly relieving the pressure on my wrist to make sure there was no bleeding at the insertion site. At discharge, she even wheeled me out to the car herself. Not only did I feel well taken care of from start to finish, but there was time to get to know a little about each other personally. That only added to the positive experience. If that’s not an “extraordinary nurse,” then I’m not sure what else it would take to earn the moniker because Makinsey met my definition at every level.