June 2016
Melody
Pierce
,
RN
Cardio Pulmonary Stepdown
The Christ Hospital Health Network
Cincinnati
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

Melody was my husband's nurse. She volunteered to work this shift due to a holiday. My husband is a complicated patient with kidney failure, S/P kidney transplant, coronary heart disease and diabetes, and dyspnea due to volume overload.
Melody befriended my husband and me with her easy-going, but confident mannerisms. She encouraged my husband to ambulate by sending him on a "scavenger hunt" around 4 South. She joked with him in a constructive way to get him to use his incentive spirometer and keep his legs elevated when in the chair. I was impressed how she used humor in a constructive manner to gain our trust and improve my husband's well-being in a short 12-hour shift.
Nurses like Melody (or "Mama Mel", as she is called by the staff) are the strong back bone of the nursing profession. She was truly a joy!