Dr. B had a patient who was delayed until late in the afternoon. It was close to 1700, and the patient had still not gone to surgery. The patient and his wife had told us that they wanted to cancel and reschedule for several reasons, but primarily because his wife was not comfortable driving herself, particularly after dark. Dr. B was insistent about the patient staying for his surgery because this patient had a cancerous lesion that needed to be removed, and it had already been delayed once. I spoke with the patient and his family, and they agreed that they would stay. I began making arrangements to do that. After this, I left for the day.

Last week, I had a conversation with Hope, and this patient came up. Hope told me that the patient's wife had reluctantly agreed to drive herself home but was clearly nervous about it. Hope took the lady's phone and entered her home address into "maps" on her phone to assist her. She even connected it to her hearing aid (I don't know how to do this) so that she would hear the instructions. As they walked out together, the patient's wife became even more anxious and just kept saying, "I don't know if I can do this." Hope was very concerned about her getting home safely, so she offered to "lead" the woman home until she could get her to the main road that she lived off. To give more information as to how incredible this is, Hope is one of our 12-hour employees and leaves the latest. She also lives in southern Tennessee, so she has a 45-minute to 1-hour drive home. She went 20-30 minutes in the opposite direction of her home to help. She also gave her personal cell phone number and asked her to text once she made it home safely, which she did. She continues to text her occasionally to express how thankful she is for Hope's help in getting home that night.

This was a selfless act of kindness and is a reflection of Hope not only as a nurse but of the compassionate and considerate person that she is.