January 2019
Sara
Bickley
,
RN
Radiation Oncology
Mount Carmel Grove City
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

Sara is the embodiment of compassion, caring, and dedication. With each patient, she finds a way to connect -- to find laughter in a trying time, to ease their pain and to do whatever she can so that they know they are cared for. I recall one example of two children who brought their elderly father into our Department late for a follow-up visit. It turns out that due to his advanced age (over 90), declining condition and advanced Parkinson's disease, it was increasingly challenging for his two children to care or even just move him. The patient was late to the office for this visit because it took the two children so long to somehow hoist the patient into the large truck to get him here. During the office visit, Sara helped me come up with a plan for greater palliative support for them at home. As we concluded the visit, well after the Department had closed and all had gone home, Sara overheard the family trying to figure out how they were going to get him back in the truck. She immediately leaped into action. Not even pausing to grab anything to wear over her scrubs, Sara escorted the patient and the family all the way to the truck in the freezing late November weather. While the rest of us just watched, she then patiently worked with him to get him up, transferred out of the wheelchair and up into the truck, gracefully and safely. To her, she was just doing what she thought needed to be done. But the family and our staff recognize how exceptional she really is.