When Courtnie began her stretch of seven shifts in a row, her first night began with a Covid/flu Patient who needed a CABG and had an IABP. She proceeded to take care of him until the night he passed away. This is not an easy task, and she tackled each challenge that each night brought with skill and grace. I did not know much about this patient the first few nights other than that they had an IABP and were under precautions for Covid/flu. My own patient assignment was in the same corner of the hall, and I know Courtnie was not seen often. She spent the vast majority of her nights gowned up, N95 on, and at his bedside. She worked hard for 12 hours, back-to-back nights.

Then, on our third night together, he started to take a turn for the worse. The patient was a DNR, but nonetheless, this nurse escalated each problem quickly and appropriately. She recognized the patient deteriorating early in the shift and called to have the attending physician correctly update the code status in Epic. Sure enough, two or three hours later, the patient passed. Once the family arrived, they were extremely upset. Not only is having your patient pass and continuing treatments leading up to it stressful for a nurse, but having ten sobbing family members surrounding you 15 minutes later is not something a lot of nurses can handle.

The patient’s daughter had lots of questions regarding their father’s passing, and Courtnie sat them down in the hallway and assumed answered all of their questions to T. It was probably a 30-minute family conference led by Courtnie, and it brought his daughter so much peace of mind. Courtnie exemplified every quality that a good nurse has that night: intelligence, advocacy, and compassion. Her face was heavily marked from all the isolation gear after hours of giving 110% until the very end. And then she gave 110% support to his family. Outstanding nurse.