I am writing in regard to my Mother-in-law, S, who was blessed to have the most amazing nurse. To give a little context, S had undergone a major surgery to resect a pancreatic mass and over the next few days endured many complications, which ultimately led to a second surgery. Rather than hearing “it went really well”, we were told her stomach (an area that hadn’t even been operated on) was necrotic. To make matters worse, the surgeon said it was too dangerous to resect, so alternative interventions were performed. The words “this could be fatal” cut through us like a knife. As you can imagine, there was comfort in knowing she was being monitored closely in the ICU for many days later. When the day came for her to move outside the ICU and continue with her next phase of recovery, I’d be lying if I said that our entire family wasn’t worried. It wasn’t whether there would be great nurses on the new unit, but rather worried about the potential limitations of staff availability. The path forward was still uncertain, and S’s condition could change in a flash. We couldn’t help but think, “Will the nurse be available to notice if her condition suddenly changed, or will she be busy with another patient?” Upon arrival to the unit met Emma and quickly realized she was on the right unit and with the right nurse.

Emma was everything you could hope for in a caregiver; she was welcoming, kind, extremely knowledgeable, and attentive. She explained every little detail and never appeared rushed. Her gentle touch and soft voice comforted S who was still experiencing so much pain. But most importantly to me as a mom, she took time to make S look like herself and appear comfortable to my two kids, who up until this point were scared to visit her. Emma made Grandma look like Grandma, and for the first time in over a week, my kids finally approached the bed and gave her a hug. Watching Emma care for S was something beautiful. She didn’t have to treat S as if she were her own family member, but she did. Emma would probably say she was just doing her job, but she wasn’t.

She didn’t just take care of S; she made an impact on our whole family, including my teen daughter, who now wants to be a nurse. We are forever grateful for Emma and it is my honor to nominate Emma for this well-deserved award, she truly is one of the best!