Brandon Schmidt
March 2018
Brandon
Schmidt
,
RN
Emergency Room
Woodland Heights Medical Center
Lufkin
,
TX
United States

 

 

 

For the past ten years, Brandon has worked as an emergency nurse in the healthcare profession. He is one of those true servant leaders who will do a task before he will ask someone else to do it. A small reason why Brandon stands out is his ability to be calm while working in a raging emergency department while providing quality patient care. Meanwhile, he never asks for accolades. There are patients who know Brandon by name stating, "Oh I have had Brandon as my nurse twice before; he provides outstanding care". There are patients who know Brandon as the ER nurse on the highway billboard sign, and there are patients who may never know him by name but as the ER nurse with the beard. His emergency medicine patient care and leadership alone are outstanding, but his action in late summer of 2017 stands out.
On August 17th of 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit Texas starting two weeks of destruction affecting most of the coastal region. As Harvey worked its way up towards Houston then on to the Texas/Louisiana border it inundated the area with over 60 inches of rain. The flooding of South East Texas area displaced over an estimated 30,000 and by August 29th; 13,000 people had been rescued from flooded homes and neighborhoods.
One of the thousands of volunteers who never thought twice about hooking up a boat (two of his boats) to rescue families out of the water was Brandon. Hespent days attached to law enforcement agencies boating in and out of the flooded areas helping those in need. On a day he was scheduled to work, he called the emergency department leadership team to see if someone could cover his shift so that he could stay in the area to help with rescuing. When Brandon returned to work he never once was heard talking about what "he did", or how many "he" saved. It was just normal for him to help the needy. Knowing he will never draw attention to his actions or ask for acknowledgment of an assignment well done is just everyday work for Brandon.