Derek is an excellent nurse. He is always going above and beyond for his patients, their families and his fellow staff. An example of this was when he was dealing with a particularly difficult family. They came in to visit their child right at shift change and immediately wanted to see a manager, doctor and a nurse because they were upset. Derek was the nurse that was supposed to be going home. Instead of leaving that nurse to deal with the difficult family situation, he stayed for two hours after he was supposed to go home to work with the family to resolve their complaints. He stayed and educated the family on what was going on with their child and answered any questions that they had. He got the medical team and a manager involved to be able to best meet the needs of this family. Their child was very sick and a very demanding patient. For two days Derek ran around working his tail off to take care of their child, barely having time to eat lunch and never sitting down and when the family came in upset and angry, he still took an extra two hours to be there and support them and to support his fellow nurse by not leaving her in a tough situation. This is not the only example of Derek going above and beyond. All of our patients and families love him and request him to be their nurse. He shows incredible patience and kindness in difficult situations and is always working his hardest. He is a valuable member to the CICU staff and an example to his coworkers. Derek takes pride in being the best nurse that he can be and it is evident in the care that he provides to his patients. He has a great attitude and approaches everything with a smile. He makes the CICU a better environment to work in.

Derek is very intelligent and incredibly dedicated to his work. He is always pushing himself to learn something new. There is never a day or a night that he doesn't have some textbook or research article, although he is often too busy to read them. He is not one to ever put off something because it's not his job or because he wants to leave it for the next nurse. All the nursing staff say that it is a delight to follow Derek because the room is cleaned and organized, he never leaves work for someone else and he does a great job in report.

Derek knows everyone that passes through our unit, the house cleaners, service supply employees, PCAs, HUCs, doctors, nurses, VAT team members, etc. He makes it a priority to treat everyone with respect regardless of their title. And more than just knowing their names he knows about what is going on in their lives, he asks them about their family, their children and whatever else is going on in their lives. This is a testament to his character and the type of person that he is.

Derek's work ethic is probably one of his greatest areas of strength. I alluded to it earlier, but Derek never puts anything off for someone else to do. He never says "that's not my job." From before he clocks in, until after he leaves, Derek is working as hard as he can for his patients, families and coworkers. If he doesn't have a busy assignment, he is the first one to offer to lend a helping hand.

Derek connects to every patient and family member that is on our unit. He does a great job of making them feel like a priority and feel like more than "just another patient". He is an advocate for his patients and is always trying to do what is best for them. He goes out of his way to try and make the best of everyone's hospital stay. He helps families find and utilize resources whether its child life, social work or the family resource center. He includes families in their child's care and makes them feel like a valued member of the team.

Sometimes our patient population is hard to connect to, they are often small babies that are intubated and sedated. Derek realizes that caring for his patients means caring for the families. He reaches out to the families to make them feel comfortable and to connect to them.

All of our older kids love having Derek as their nurse. In one instance instead of sitting outside the room and talking with other nurses or charting, he brought a computer in the room so he could chart and talk to his 17 year old patient so they did not have to be by themselves. He stayed in that room the whole night to just talk or play cards with him so that he didn't have to be alone. This is not an usual thing to see when you see Derek working.

Derek is a very intelligent nurse. Not only does he do a great job of educating our patients and their families, but of our staff too. He is always precepting new nurses or has students or someone shadowing him. He is a very valuable and knowledgeable resource to our unit. He does a very good job of breaking down medical information to patients and their families in ways they can understand it. He pulls up videos, draws pictures, finds articles; anything that he can do to help educate patients and families. We often hear him say "ask me questions, let me teach you, because I am not going to be able to go home with you". He makes sure that families feel comfortable in the care given to their child and he makes sure that patients understand what is going on.

When he teaches and educates patients, families and staff, Derek does an outstanding job of teaching on an appropriate developmental level. He teaches patients and families in terms that they understand. He does whatever it takes to reach them where they are at. When he teaches staff and students he pushing them to see big picture. He teaches them to not just do something, but to ask why and to understand why they are doing it. You can be intelligent and not be a good teacher, fortunately Derek is both.

In addition to being a valuable resource and educator on our unit, Derek is always pushing himself to learn more. He is always seeking out educational opportunities or asking questions. He doesn't settle.

Going back to the family that came in very upset and angry, Derek was able to talk to the family and explain the plan of care for their child and answer all of their questions. What started out as a tough situation with a difficult family ended in everyone leaving happy. Multiple times he was told it was okay for him to leave and go home because he was staying late, but he stayed until the family was at a good place. He made sure that all of their questions were answered and they had talked to everyone that they wanted to talk to. In addition he got them in touch with family resource and social work to make their future time in the unit easier. He made the family's needs a priority over leaving on time even though he had to be back early the next morning.

Derek makes family centered care a goal. He makes sure that the voices of patients and families are heard. He is an advocate and spokesperson for them. He makes sure that their needs are met and their questions are answered. Sometimes this puts him in a difficult spot, when the family disagrees with the medical team, but Derek always facilitates communication and makes sure a resolution is met. He is not afraid to speak up for his patient's best interests.

Derek includes the family in other ways besides decision making. Sometimes our patients are too sick to be held or too sick to have very much interaction with their families. In these instances Derek finds a way to help the family connect with their child and help be part of their care. Sometimes its something as small as changing a diaper or helping change their bedding. But even that can go a long way. Parents often say they just want to feel like they are doing something to help, and Derek makes sure that happens.