I had the pleasure of being Ali's clinical instructor for her med surg 1 clinical. On the first day of clinical, I shared with my groups my own inexperience as a nursing student, including the nerves I used to experience with basic skills and tasks. Ali shared with me some of the same feelings I had as a student, and I kept this in mind to offer support and guidance along the way. Often, with students who lack previous experience in the healthcare field, making connections with patients and families can be challenging at the start. This was not the case for Ali. She was quick to learn the unit routines and quickly gained confidence with simply walking into a patient's room and waking them up for 0700 vitals. What stood out to me was Ali's ability to treat her patients as humans, going above and beyond "nursing duties" to make her patients feel like themselves.

One week, Ali was assigned a patient who had many requests, put their call light on frequently, and may have been feeling a little neglected among the many patients on the unit. Ali and her classmate went out of their way to make sure the patient was properly bathed, including cleaning her hair and braiding it. The patient and family were so thankful, and I know Ali was so happy and proud to have helped her patient in a way that meant something to the patient.

In the following weeks, Ali went out of her way to visit and stop in with the patient. Her priority was treating the patient like she was her own family member. She prioritized her other patient care activities to leave time to help care for her patient from the previous week. I was so impressed by Ali's ability to take not only Franciscan caring values, but also to effortlessly implement holistic nursing care for her patient and their family as a new student in her first clinical. I am confident that patient and family still remember Ali, as I often think about the care she provided as well.