Bonnie Jo Graziano
October 2015
Bonnie Jo
Graziano
,
RN
4 West
Orange Regional Medical Center
Middletown
,
NY
United States

 

 

 

Bonnie Jo goes above and beyond every single day that she comes to work. I have seen her interact with her patients, cry with her patients and care for them at some of the most critical times. I have received many patient compliments about Bonnie Jo as well as many compliments from her colleagues. She holds many hats when she comes to work, one day she may be charge, another day she may be preceptor or she may just get to be the extraordinary nurse that she is.
The biggest reason for this nomination aside from her every day phenomenal care, is a situation that took place that displayed how empathetic, caring and compassionate Bonnie Jo is.
We have a patient on the unit that was in a terrible accident while on a job here in New York. The patient is from Alabama and has been left paraplegic. Not only has this man gone through a traumatic life change, but at the same time he is here in New York alone with no family or friends. Bonnie Jo was able to relate to what this patient was going through; because years back she went through something similar with her own brother. With permission from the patient, Bonnie Jo asked her brother to visit with the patient and let the patient know that someone else knows what he is going through. He sat with the patient and discussed his experience and listened to the patient's thoughts, fears and answered some questions that only he could understand as he was in the same exact situation years ago. The patient was so grateful for this visit and it literally transformed his experience at Orange Regional before all of our eyes!
Bonnie Jo has gone above and beyond in showing empathy (not only for this patient, but for every patient she encounters). She understands how to transform an ordinary patient experience into an extraordinary one. She has the ability to understand her patient's experience, to communicate that understanding to the patient and then knows how to act in a helpful manner to allay a patient's fears and concerns. Bonnie Jo knows how to capture the human experience and makes Orange Regional Medical Center the wonderful healing environment it is.