I’d like to take a moment to share with you what an incredibly dedicated, conscientious, empathetic, and engaged Nurse Manager you have in Ashley Hood, MICU. Our family has been going through a terribly long ordeal with my father’s health. For his first 2.5 weeks, he was at Sinai Hospital and then transferred to UMMC 7.5 weeks ago. After fighting long and hard, and seeing little chances of recovery, and despite my father having so much more life to give and wanting to live life to be with his family, on Friday, he was transferred to Gilchrist.

During this very heavy and difficult time for us, I wanted to take a moment to share a word of gratitude to the medical, nursing, custodial, and administrative staff of the MICU. Our family has had many ups and downs with various individuals, but for the most part, most nursing staff and most NPs were exemplary...one person who absorbed and helped to manage our day-to-day challenges and struggles, giving an ear and taking action, is Ashley Hood. They [MICU team] carry a lot of weight on their shoulders, and Ashley did so with kindness, awareness, care, and genuineness. Ashley is a change agent for the better. She will make an indelible impact on the MICU and UMMC writ large.

As a scholar of 30 years in the area of occupational stress & health amongst nurses across cultures, I have had the opportunity to work with many wonderful nurse managers. I also know that many rarely get the notice they deserve. Thus, despite the despair we are experiencing today, given my father’s situation, before things get even more hectic, I wanted to take a moment to give a shout-out to Ashley!