Rebecca T Rodriguez
August 2024
Rebecca T
Rodriguez
,
RN
Adult Surgical Critical Care Unit
Indiana University Health North Hospital
Carmel
,
IN
United States
She ensured that she would be my sister's nurse again the next day after an extremely eventful shift in which she stayed late to make sure my sister had her needs taken care of through shift change.
Rebecca displayed extraordinary compassion, comfort, and dedication during her time caring for my sister in the ICU. My sister has a very rare, advanced cancer, and her physical condition is quite poor. She is 32 years old, and this is an incredibly difficult time for our family and for her. Caring for her is an intensive and often exhausting responsibility. She is bedridden and requires constant shifting and treatment due to both encumbering, large masses of tumors and ascites resulting in an extremely distended abdomen and third space swelling, as well as many serious pressure wounds on her backside. I say this to stress genuinely how laborious it can be to take on this task. Every part of her is fragile, heavy, and constantly uncomfortable. Even more so, this responsibility can have a draining psychological component.
Like many nurses, Rebecca shared that she was a mother, specifically a mother to daughters. My mother spends day and night by my sister’s side. The nurses couldn’t dodge her suffering if they wanted to - it fills the room. The toll it can take on a mother of daughters to care for a relatively young woman with an unimaginable illness with her mother suffering by her side should not go unappreciated. Yet with all the burdens that caring for my sister can present, Rebecca was willing with spirit and empathy above and beyond what can be expected or even hoped for. Per our family’s request, she ensured that she would be my sister's nurse again the next day after an extremely eventful shift in which she stayed late to make sure my sister had her needs taken care of through shift change. We have spent months in the hospital over the last year. We have seen thousands of healthcare professionals at work. I can confidently declare that Rebecca has top-tier clinical skills and professional capacity. I can also truly declare that the impetus for this recommendation has little to do with her exemplary execution of a nurse’s duties. She took time aside from the constant chaos to genuinely care for and support our family. She sees that people are in pain and she cannot ignore it. Personally, her support, kindness, and efforts towards me had a profound effect on my faith in people during the hardest time in my life. I just wanted to say thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Like many nurses, Rebecca shared that she was a mother, specifically a mother to daughters. My mother spends day and night by my sister’s side. The nurses couldn’t dodge her suffering if they wanted to - it fills the room. The toll it can take on a mother of daughters to care for a relatively young woman with an unimaginable illness with her mother suffering by her side should not go unappreciated. Yet with all the burdens that caring for my sister can present, Rebecca was willing with spirit and empathy above and beyond what can be expected or even hoped for. Per our family’s request, she ensured that she would be my sister's nurse again the next day after an extremely eventful shift in which she stayed late to make sure my sister had her needs taken care of through shift change. We have spent months in the hospital over the last year. We have seen thousands of healthcare professionals at work. I can confidently declare that Rebecca has top-tier clinical skills and professional capacity. I can also truly declare that the impetus for this recommendation has little to do with her exemplary execution of a nurse’s duties. She took time aside from the constant chaos to genuinely care for and support our family. She sees that people are in pain and she cannot ignore it. Personally, her support, kindness, and efforts towards me had a profound effect on my faith in people during the hardest time in my life. I just wanted to say thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, thank you, thank you.