Carol Attenhoffer is an extraordinary person and clinician who epitomizes nursing at its best. She is highly skilled, compassionate, a sound critical thinker, and consistently displays the highest ethical standards. More importantly Carol serves as the ultimate patient advocate. She is known as the "BEST" IV starter there is, and for her willingness to always help another team member.

Recently, our patient census doubled and during this time, Carol has taken on a very demanding charge nurse role when asked, averages 10-12 hours over her scheduled time just to ensure appropriate staffing. Carol also works extra holiday time if the unit is busy. Everyone knows they can count on Carol. In her off time, Carol does volunteer home-care nursing out of the goodness of her heart and keeps watch on many of her elderly neighbors. she truly has a "heart of gold".

Other examples of her compassion/teamwork would be the many times Carol has brought lunch to our staff(on her day off) and vegetables from her garden. We are so lucky that Carol has been a part of our department for so many years. We appreciate her so much, and feel Carol is most deserving of this award. After all, everyone, both staff and patients, know and love Carol. She is the perfect example of an excellent nurse and true team player.