Anthony Seidel
May 2025
Anthony
Seidel
,
BSN, RN
Float Pool
Inova Fairfax Medical Campus
Falls Church
,
VA
United States
He not only tended to his nursing duties, but he stepped out of his nursing shoes and embodied what it truly means to be a nurse.
My loving, devoted father and my best friend succumbed to his injuries. My father spent 50 years of his life taking care of his family, his brother, his sisters, his wife, his daughter, and me. On that day, he needed someone to take care of him and his family.
During his brief, but what felt like an eternity, stay in the Trauma ICU, many nurses entered and exited my father's room. Of all the nurses I met that day, Anthony Seidel answered the call and stood out above the rest.
As I paced my father's room and the hallways of INOVA, struggling to cope with my father's body lying in that hospital bed, never to walk again, never to smile again, never to call out my name again, never to reassure me that everything would be okay again, I noticed Anthony. He not only tended to his nursing duties, but he stepped out of his nursing shoes and embodied what it truly means to be a nurse.
In one instance, Anthony stood beside me. Without saying a word, he placed his arm around my shoulder and comforted me as I mourned my father’s journey in life and his dreams deferred. My father had wanted to retire soon and stay home to care for his grandkids.
In another instance, I informed Anthony that I wanted my father to receive prayers from the chaplain and to see and get a copy of his last heartbeat as he was surrounded by those who loved him. Anthony understood my requests and fulfilled my wishes.
The moment that definitively cemented Anthony as the right nurse to care for my father was when he truly demonstrated that nursing goes beyond performing skills and charting. In my father's final moments, as his heart rate dropped from the 100s to the 50s, to the 30s, and finally to 0, I looked around the room, and I saw Anthony still standing there. He remained in the room as if he were paying respect to my father, someone he had only met a few hours earlier. His attention never wavered until my father passed.
For this, I will never forget Anthony for his service and his compassion toward my father on that day. Anthony Seidel truly embodied why the family of J. Patrick Barnes created this award: to honor nurses who answer the call to go above and beyond.
Anthony exemplifies INOVA’s core values of Patient Always and Integrity, and I will forever be grateful for the compassion he showed my father and our family when we needed it most.
During his brief, but what felt like an eternity, stay in the Trauma ICU, many nurses entered and exited my father's room. Of all the nurses I met that day, Anthony Seidel answered the call and stood out above the rest.
As I paced my father's room and the hallways of INOVA, struggling to cope with my father's body lying in that hospital bed, never to walk again, never to smile again, never to call out my name again, never to reassure me that everything would be okay again, I noticed Anthony. He not only tended to his nursing duties, but he stepped out of his nursing shoes and embodied what it truly means to be a nurse.
In one instance, Anthony stood beside me. Without saying a word, he placed his arm around my shoulder and comforted me as I mourned my father’s journey in life and his dreams deferred. My father had wanted to retire soon and stay home to care for his grandkids.
In another instance, I informed Anthony that I wanted my father to receive prayers from the chaplain and to see and get a copy of his last heartbeat as he was surrounded by those who loved him. Anthony understood my requests and fulfilled my wishes.
The moment that definitively cemented Anthony as the right nurse to care for my father was when he truly demonstrated that nursing goes beyond performing skills and charting. In my father's final moments, as his heart rate dropped from the 100s to the 50s, to the 30s, and finally to 0, I looked around the room, and I saw Anthony still standing there. He remained in the room as if he were paying respect to my father, someone he had only met a few hours earlier. His attention never wavered until my father passed.
For this, I will never forget Anthony for his service and his compassion toward my father on that day. Anthony Seidel truly embodied why the family of J. Patrick Barnes created this award: to honor nurses who answer the call to go above and beyond.
Anthony exemplifies INOVA’s core values of Patient Always and Integrity, and I will forever be grateful for the compassion he showed my father and our family when we needed it most.