Clara Flikke, BSN, RN

I have been in various hospitals numerous times over the years, and I don’t recall ever really having a bad nurse. I have had many good nurses, but Clara stood out to me as an excellent nurse.

She started out as my emergency room nurse because, as I learned later, she likes to help out there. By sheer chance I was moved to her unit and she was my nurse for the next four days as well.

I started my stay in a lot of pain. Both in the emergency room and in Clara’s unit, she was always there with my pain medication when I needed it, and always there when I needed the numerous other medications I am on. Clara always made sure my meals were ordered on time and that my blood sugar was checked. She was always making sure I had what I needed or wanted, even though sometimes I didn’t even realize I wanted something and she did.

Clara always had a very professional, very positive attitude. She was team-oriented, as I twice witnessed her commending her aide for taking the initiative to do a task.

I don’t think I once pushed the nurses' call button when Clara was on duty in the five days she was my nurse. It was the first time I actually felt pampered as a patient.