I have been on 144/145 for 6 years, spending the last 18 months in a leadership role. I am humbled each day by the outstanding teamwork, perseverance, and resilience that our team exemplifies. Our floor fosters a learning environment. We are host to many students and clinical groups. The nurses love precepting and embrace students as part of the floor. We have had several clinical instructors let us know how amazing the nurses are and how much the students learn on the floor. I know this is true because instructors often stop by to say hello and frequently send students our way at graduation. We also work hard to provide an environment where providers, including medicine teams and new hospitalists, feel comfortable communicating and coordinating with our staff. We also have great DCAM participation and providers speak kindly of our staff. 144/145 is diverse. We have many international nurses who bring so much knowledge and experience to the team. They bring such a unique perspective to our team. We have several staff members who stayed on 144/145 and converted to BJH employees when their contracts were finished. I am proud of the way our team embraces differences and uses them as learning opportunities. Several of our nurses speak multiple languages and it is such a comfort to our patients when they can be paired with a nurse who speaks their primary language. Our staff takes initiative to be inclusive in various ways like bulletin boards, monthly activities, trivia sheets, etc. We had a nurse who wanted to develop a bulletin board for Pride Month with facts and accomplishments of popular LGBTQ figures, and another who made a bulletin board for the winter holidays that celebrated different cultures' holiday celebrations. Our team routinely picks up extra shifts to ensure we are staffed. Our nurses, SNT’s and US are always willing to help their coworkers by coming in to cover shifts. It was very apparent during the bad snowstorm we had this year. Our staff brought clothes and planned to stay (some for multiple days) to ensure they could get to their shifts. We had people bunking with co-workers who live close by, in hotel rooms, in rooms on the unit, and elsewhere in the hospital. Some even planned out hotel rooms days before the storm! The leadership team worked to assure there was leader coverage nearly 24/7 during the storm. We were able to spare some staff to the medicine service because our team took the initiative to plan ahead to assure our patients and team were safe. A few people even helped pass trays! Some of those shifts were really tough, but we all worked together and made it fun! We have a few patient experiences from the last few months that make me proud of our team: 
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The first was a patient on the floor who was newly diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. She was 18 and had been here for weeks. As a result of her hospitalization, she had to miss her high school graduation. The entire floor came together to throw her a graduation party, including a banner and balloons! The patient and her family were so thankful.
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The next example was a patient who had been on the floor for several weeks. She had an altered mental status at times and at other times, she did not. She became well known and well-liked by the whole floor even though she could be a heavy patient who required a lot of care. Everyone on the floor would stop by and just visit with her. Some nurses would even braid her hair or stay to check in with her family. She eventually was discharged, and as she left on the stretcher, she waved and said goodbye and that she loved everyone. Just recently, someone on the floor noticed this patient was in the ED. The nurse called patient placement and asked if the patient could be put on 14. When the patient arrived, she waved and yelled “hello everyone, I’m back!” Most of the team stopped by during her stay to visit and catch up. It was so sweet. 
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Another patient on the floor had a severe cognitive delay. He could become aggressive and assaultive at a moment’s notice. He would learn a nurse’s name and just lay there and yell it out, over and over. Everyone pitched in and helped whatever nurse was assigned to the patient. It didn’t matter if the patient needed to be cleaned up, repositioned, just talked to, etc. The patient became everyone’s patient while he was here, ensuring to answer when he yelled and calming him down when he was agitated. 
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One patient spent an extensive amount of time on the floor with metastatic cancer. The patient, spouse, and medical team discussed treatment options thoroughly over the course of 10 days. The patient would get strong enough to qualify for rehab and then some acute event would happen that prevented him from discharging – worsening kidney function, shortness of breath. He would take a day or two to get back strength to qualify for the placement that the patient and family agreed on. Then another acute event would happen. The family grew very frustrated with the nurses, doctors, case management, and leadership and the patient was not able to go to rehab. The family confided in a few nurses and social workers about their grief. Ultimately, the patient went home on comfort care with family. The family called a week later and asked to talk to the nurses who cared for her husband. She notified us that he passed at home in peace with family just days later. She expressed so much gratitude for the relentless efforts the staff put into her husband’s care. One of the nurses was so shocked and nearly in tears at the spouse’s kind words because the nurse had such a difficult time during the shifts she cared for this patient. 
Our staff does not realize the impact their care and perseverance have on all those they encounter, yet they give their all every shift. 
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The last example is about a transgender patient who arrived at the ED with nothing. She was homeless and had been assaulted and robbed of all her possessions. She had a hard time trusting anyone. The attending MD was very patient with her. The patient was originally from another state and just wanted to get back to a community with which she was familiar. It took many weeks for things to fall into place for her. Case management and social work were trying to make things happen, but plans fell through very often. The longer she was on the floor, the more she began to trust everyone. She would stop by and visit at the nurses’ stations and leader offices. She learned our names and would ask for various people to talk about different topics. Everyone on the floor became her ally instead of her enemy. At one point, a package arrived from a friend in Colorado, and it had some clothes and shoes in it for her. She loved to put on her heels and robe and walk up and down the halls showing off how good she looked. When it was finally time for her to leave, nurses bought and donated things for her. She did not have a suitcase, so one was given to her. She ended up going back to her home state. 
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One situation with a staff member comes to mind when considering characteristics that make our team stand out. One of our nurse’s mothers unexpectedly passed away while she was working the floor. The nurse was in shock and stated she wanted to continue her shift. The team came together to pull a nurse from one side of the unit to the other, split up the assignments, and someone stayed with the nurse and helped contact her husband to come to pick her up. Our team supported our nurse to her family and covered the patient load without any question. That is the epitome of a caring and compassionate team. It is easy to come to work each day with an amazing team that goes above and beyond with staff, students, patients, and family. I am so proud to be a part of this team.