Gracie is an incredibly dedicated nurse who truly cares about her patients. On this night, we received a patient from EMS who had been combative en route, and when the patient arrived, it would have been easy for a lot of nurses to be distracted by her reported behavior or by being told the patient was "just intoxicated" in the report. Gracie, however, quickly recognized that this patient was both medically unstable and was showing signs of having been in an unsafe situation. She acted quickly to escalate the patient's care, eventually taking her to the trauma bay, and continued to closely monitor and advocate for the patient through the night.

The patient was understandably upset when she became more awake, and Gracie spent large amounts of time in her room comforting her, and spent hours using a portable computer to chart so she could sit outside the patient's room and monitor her. This patient was a vulnerable young woman who had likely experienced trauma prior to her arrival, and easily could have been brushed off as "combative," "intoxicated," and other common labels that can cause patients to be dismissed by healthcare providers. She is exactly whom I would have wanted to take care of me if I had been in such a vulnerable situation, and she did so much to preserve her patient's safety and dignity all night. She works this hard for all of her patients and is truly an excellent nurse.