I am a night shift ER Nurse Practitioner solo provider in a critical access hospital. I came in that evening to work, and the previous shift had a patient who had passed away. The patient was still in the room with grieving family members, and the staff was allowing them time to say goodbye.

There was a delay in the individual's pickup, so to restore our crash room to functionality, we moved the person to a floor bed to await the funeral home pickup. Our hospital is small, so this is pretty standard, especially if there’s going to be a delay in pick up. When the decision was made to move the patient and return the room so that we could use it in the Emergency Department, the primary nurse, Jerry Miller, went into the room with the patient’s body since they were not going to go to autopsy.

We typically remove the tubes, cover the body, and then place it in the other room. However, Jerry took it upon himself to carefully and respectfully clean the patient from head to toe, in a manner I believe was above and beyond, before moving the patient so the family could continue their visitation.

When I asked him why he did all the things he did, he just said it was the right thing to do, and that was how he was trained. He didn’t want the family members to sit and grieve with their loved ones without knowing he had cared for them always, even in their passing. He said it’s what nurses do. The family didn’t know how much time and care he devoted to their loved one, but I saw him, and I feel he should be recognized for that.