October 2016
Jessica
Ruiz Mesa
,
RN, BSN
ICU
MacNeal Hospital
Berwyn
,
IL
United States

 

 

 

I was in the hospital for five days and the brightest moments in my stay was when my nurse, Jessica, would come into my room to check on me. She never made me feel like I was a bother because I called on her a lot. She would always come in with a smile and asked what she could do for me and she would always come through. My wife really liked her a lot and they would laugh together as if they were friends for years, sometimes even jokingly picking on me and making me laugh, which was a good thing because I was becoming depressed.
I learned that my mother was in a different hospital after having a stroke and here I am in the hospital after having intestinal surgery. Jessica once again made me feel at peace because she explained that she had cared for several patients that had strokes and that she had witnessed several positive outcomes with the care provided by the nursing and rehab staff. She even offered to pray with me and I felt super blessed afterward. If she hadn't prayed for me, there's no way I would have tried to heal right because I was ready to sign myself out while still needing IV antibiotics. But I stayed because I trusted my nurse. I mean, I never in any hospital stay, have seen a registered nurse make my bed. Jessica made my bed. She would nicely kick me out to walk around the unit to get my bowels moving again, and I would see her redoing my entire bed and cleaning my table and drawers with disinfectant. A nurse, not even a CAN, but a nurse. Wow! She even cleaned my floor, bed and me when I had a few accidents. I felt embarrassed because I never had an accident before (as an adult), and she said, jokingly, there was no need to be embarrassed because this happened to her at home all the time. She's really an awesome person and an incredible nurse.