Erika Petersen
July 2019
Erika
Petersen
,
BSN, RN, CPN
Doernbecher Pediatric Acute Care: Medical
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland
,
OR
United States

 

 

 

Erika probably does this on a regular basis, but I was able to witness her incredible calm and professionalism in the past week. She had both an adolescent with extreme emotional distress who was borderline aggressive and violent and an infant with a mother who had very high expectations regarding care. I had the opportunity to see Erika calmly and patiently deliver excellent care to both patients, and even after being verbally assaulted by the adolescent and then verbally chastised by the mother, she apologized for the situation and showed empathy towards them both, despite neither situation being any fault of her own. This was all at the end of her shift and she never skipped a beat. She made a difficult task look easy and demonstrated extraordinary skill and compassion.