Candace and I were taking care of an ECMO patient. She was sitting pump and I was the bedside nurse. The patient had been hospitalized already for over 6 weeks and was not improving. The family making decisions was her two young daughters, aged 19 and 22. Candace and I both had previously taken care of this patient on separate occasions, but Candace was the nurse on shift who initially admitted the patient. So her rapport with the family was already established.

On this particular shift, the daughters were struggling with coming to terms with the fact that the patient was going to eventually pass and had recently been made a DNR by multiple physicians, even though the daughters wanted to keep going. Candace went above and beyond showing such compassion this day by taking the time to just sit and listen to the daughters talk about their mom. The kind of parent she was, the things she liked to do for fun, the delicious food she made, and the crazy high heels the patient used to wear when she went out at night. Candace was the ear they didn’t know they needed that day! She spent several hours just listening and being with them like a big sister would do!

The daughters still were not ready to transition the patient to comfort care on our shift, but they were starting to talk about the way they will remember her and how to celebrate her life. I witnessed incredible courage Candace showed when discussing certain areas of care regarding the patient, but she did it with the most extreme empathy and dignity for the patient. It is my opinion that Candace deserves a DAISY Award as she is the perfect example of what outstanding nursing looks like.