Kendryn regularly sits down at the tables in the "Day Area" to chat with patients. Her nursing responsibilities are perfectly balanced with her ability to converse and empathize with struggling individuals. She receives a considerable amount of WOW cards because not only do I recognize her talents and empathy, but the patients do too. I remember one time she stopped me while I was walking because she was playing UNO with a patient and wanted a third person. She listens intently to their needs and responds accordingly. Any patient knows, if Kendryn can, she will. From drinks to movies to guitars, Kendryn is happy to retrieve and set up whatever is necessary to make our patients feel seen, supported, and involved in their healing (even if it's outside of our usual timing for those specific things, haha).

When she is passing meds and comes across a distressed patient, she stops everything to sit and talk to them, even asking to sit in their room with them and chat until they feel better. It's not uncommon to see Kendryn with a group of patients, just gabbing and laughing. On a specific instance, we found a bunch of smiley face stickers, and Kendryn started putting them on patients' foreheads (with their consent, of course). Everybody loved it, and, by dinnertime, most people had stickers on their faces. One time, when she was working nights, a patient was crying in the middle of the night and said they were just feeling hormonal and all they wanted was cake. They laughed and commented on the randomness of the craving, but then Kendryn went down to the cafeteria and FaceTimed a coworker to talk to the patient and asked what kind of cake they wanted. That is just the kind of nurse she is.

Inpatient psychiatry can be a really scary place for a lot of patients. Kendryn's ability to make people feel human again is comforting not only to the individual but to the whole unit. I have been asked several times on a patient's way out, who "that one nurse with the fun shoes" was, so they can put her in their discharge survey. I think people who have been in a psychiatric unit are really the only ones who realize how meaningful it is to be cared for by a nurse or tech who exudes empathy the way Kendryn does. Having had personal experiences with people I love being in inpatient and recalling their experiences of how they were treated in their units, they have recounted the times when they truly felt seen, and I hear it echoed in the way so many patients talk about Kendryn. I have personally seen the difference in patients before and after talking through their emotions with Kendryn, and it's night and day to see the aftermath of what her bubbly demeanor, kindness, and willingness to answer all the questions she has answers to.