Bonnie continues to raise the standards when it comes to patient experience each shift that she is on duty. We have a patient on the unit who has been here for a long time and most likely will continue to live on our unit for the foreseeable future. She is very medically complex but has been labeled as difficult for the strain she puts on staff due to some of her psychosocial concerns.

It is sometimes easier to get frustrated with challenging patients like this, who have very radical mood swings, can be argumentative, refuse aspects of their care, and just all around give the nursing team a hard time with anything and everything. This patient is all of these and more; however, Bonnie saw past all the challenges this young woman presented to our care team and persevered. She made time to listen to the patient, understand the different concerns, and make personal connections with her.

Bonnie learned that the patient has a vivid love for flowers; however, the patient is on neutropenic precautions and not allowed to have flowers in the room. Bonnie came in on her day off to bring the patient a Lego kit that could be built into flowers, so that she could still enjoy the flowers she was missing while being hospitalized.

The patient was so grateful for this act of kindness and wanted to share this story. The patient even became much less difficult for the entire nursing team after Bonnie had this very impactful moment with her. These small, selfless acts have such a vast impact on the patients we care for. It was very heartwarming to see this type of compassion from Bonnie.