Jill Hudson is one of those nurses that you can only dream to become one day. Jill is a true team leader, always ready to jump into an emergency, offering to prepare medications or fluids for you in her free time and always sharing her knowledge. She also has one of the kindest souls. She's the kind of person that when you meet, you just know she must be a nurse. There is no one else I would want taking care of my family members. Jill is patient and speaks in the most calming voice--especially when it is needed the most. 

Jill was assigned an 18-month-old end of life patient. While she had taken care of this patient in the past, this shift would be different. When Jill walked into the room that morning, I could hear the sigh of relief the mother of this patient gave after seeing a familiar face. Mom's arms stretched out wide as she embraced Jill, and words of comfort were spoken. As the day transpired, this mother (who had not left the patient's side) felt comfortable enough with Jill being there for her husband and child, that she was able to go home and shower. As the day went on the patient's respiratory status worsened and Jill advocated to the team to get more medications on board to help make the patient more comfortable. When Mom arrived back it became evident that the patient was close to the end of her life. 

Jill was a calming and familiar presence to these parents on one of the worst days of their lives. With permission of the parents, Jill even sang to her patient. She let the family know every step of the way that she was there to support them whether it was administering medications to help ease their child's discomfort or being a silent presence to aid in their grief. After the patient ended up passing away, Jill (at the parent's request) took photos of them on their phone. Jill then (at the parent's request) cut off one of the patient's pigtails for them to keep, providing some subtle comedic relief as the parents joked about that being their daughter's first haircut, but not a very good one. With open arms they literally passed their child over to Jill. I cannot think of a more heart wrenching moment for those parents, and the one thing that made the unbearable bearable, was their nurse. Upon my arrival Jill was still with the patient, although she had already passed, so that the patient wasn't alone. As I walked into the room Jill saw my tears and comforted me, telling me about the events of that day. She talked about how she was honored that she got to care for this family at such a crucial time in their lives. In addition, the patient's mother had asked Jill if she could let her know when the funeral home came to pick up the patient. Jill waited, at least two hours past her shift, until the funeral home arrived. She not only waited but walked down with the patient all the way to the funeral home's vehicle. She was able to tell the mother of this patient that she stayed with her until she absolutely couldn't, and that her 18-month-old daughter was never alone. 

Atrium Health's mission is to "improve health, elevate hope, and advance healing-for all." Unfortunately, we have patients who cannot always be healed. In this circumstance we could no longer improve the health of this patient, but we could bring hope to the family and help them begin to heal. Jill did just that.