Terry Shimko
November 2014
Terry
Shimko
,
RN
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
All Children's Hospital
St. Petersburg
,
FL
United States

 

 

 

At birth my son had respiratory distress and was moved up to the NICU from the Baby Place. Two days later we found out he had Micro Colon with Hypoganglionosis. Before the birth, we were all ready to move back to Bulgaria when he would be 1 month old, tickets booked and all. That all changed. It was very hard for us being in the NICU with all of these strangers and no family members. The first day we had Terry as our nurse, it felt like she was a family member. She became our primary nurse. Terry has always made each month of my son's life special. Either with monthly birthday celebrations or a beautiful mile stone poster for us to add to. She knows what he likes from comforting him to playing a dinosaur CD. Terry always takes the extra time after shift change not only to complete all notes for the next nurse. She writes additional information so the staff knows what kind of day my son had. In fact one night Terry was late for a Ray's game, which she really loves, because she wasn't going to leave before completing all the additional information. With approaching discharge after almost 7 months Terry took the time on her day off to create a binder with all the important medical information for his care. Such as line changes, how to deal with tubes, how to deal with anything that may happen and who and when to call. She is truly a nurse who goes over and above her duties. It's like she's taking care of her own baby and for me, I don't know if I would have survived here. Since my mother is in Bulgaria, Terry has been like my adopted mother and just like a mother she has taught me how to take care of my baby and his medical needs and has helped me throughout this emotional roller coaster.