I would like to nominate Jessica as a deserving recipient of the Advancing Health Equity DAISY Award. This Nurse’s Week, her skill and especially her compassionate care exemplify the kind of nurse that our patients, their families, and our staff recognized as an outstanding role model.

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I nominate Jessie for her advocacy for families who do not speak English as their primary language. Jessie, without fail, ensures that families are her are being communicated with appropriately. She is a strong advocate for the consistent use of interpreters, using in-person interpreters when available, and regularly reassessing understanding. It is often the case that our non-English-speaking families have a lower understanding of their child’s care than English-speaking families do. Even when the support system is available at the bedside, staff often avoid speaking to them directly. This never applies to Jessie. Not only does she ensure that all communication with her is in their primary language, but she also holds other staff members to this standard.

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When the care of her non-English-speaking patient slipped due to poor communication outside Jessie’s control, she immediately worked to rectify the situation. She quickly ensured proper communication with the family and helped host a meeting with other staff members to ensure the mistake would never be repeated. After the meeting, Jessie went above and beyond by writing an incident report on the matter. She took the time to do this because real change matters to her. When she is worried about the efficacy of her SERS report, she emailed management directly with ideas to change and peer-reviewed articles to support the proposed solution. She has since been involved in meetings and discussions to see the change through. When we fail our patients, it would be easy to clock out and move on, but instead, Jessie shows up for families and the community to make real, meaningful change.