Erin provided outstanding, compassionate, and respectful care to the palliative care patient, who was planned for withdrawal from life support, and his family during the entire experience. She demonstrated patience with a family who was clearly having difficulty letting go of their loved one. She served as a role model and mentor to a new resident nurse.
In speaking with Erin during this process, she shared the difficulties she and her coworkers have experienced in caring for seriously ill patients with COVID. She relayed feelings of sadness as her patients battled loneliness and isolation during periods of visitor restrictions. She talked about how her team often became the patients' surrogate family to provide crucial support to these patients during this difficult time. She also launched a project called 'Heart in a Bottle' where a telemetry strip of a dying COVID patient is placed in a small bottle with a beautiful ribbon and delivers to the patient's family with a beautiful letter about their loved one.
I am so incredibly proud to work with nurses who go above and beyond every day in the service of others. My final thoughts are that Erin embodies the beauty, kindness, and caring heart of the nursing profession.