Caring is the essence of nursing and Janel McDonald, RN embodies the art of caring like no one I have ever met. She continually amazes me every time I witness her in action, just being who she genuinely is with everyone she meets. She has an innateness to reach out to anyone, be it patients and their families or even other members of the hospital staff. Never tiring of meeting people where they are, she provides words of strength, peace and encouragement. She is graced with the ability to do this so easily and quickly, her patients are captivated and enamored with her presence. It is not uncommon to see her holding someone’s hand, smiling intently with her eyes full of understanding, soothing them with a touch of her spirit. She goes above and beyond to ensure the comfort of patients and their families throughout their entire visit, checking on them repeatedly. If you find someone peering through the curtain, it is probably Janel making her compassionate rounds offering another warm blanket or inquiring if there is anything she can do for you. One of her duties is making pre-op calls and as expected, her very tender-hearted nature takes such a strong presence throughout the conversation, speaking as if she had always known the person on the other end of the line. She is highly praised and quite frequently recognized by patients and their families through discharge follow-up calls as being so kind, gentle, empathetic and dedicated to making sure they thoroughly understand their discharge instructions. She is extremely positive and caring with her teammates as well, always looking out for them personally and showing her flexibility by helping out whenever and wherever help is needed. If you hear someone greet you by the endearing terms of Ma’am or Sir in the Endoscopy Department, you will know you were graced by the presence of this angel. Caring is not only the essence of nursing but also one of CMC’s core value; I’m pretty sure we can check her off on this one.
Janel came to Endoscopy as a PRN nurse just to “get her foot in the door” even though she desired a full time position. She had moved to Raleigh to take care of her father who is in declining health, as soon as a full time position opened I offered it to Janel without hesitation. She is a true joy and asset to our team. Not one day goes by that I do not receive a notice recognizing her caring and kind spirit on a discharge phone call.
Janel is always willing to help her team, even if she is not assigned to that area. On one such occasion she was working in the recovery area of Endoscopy, a mentally challenged patient came in for a GI procedure and was in the pre-op area getting ready to have his IV inserted, as you can imagine this can be quite challenging to the nurse inserting the IV with the patients often moving and thrashing. Some nurses would think or say to the pre-op nurse “Good Luck” and go about their business but not Janel. With a patient in recovery, she came to the pre-op area, pulled up a chair, held the patients hand and started stroking his hair speaking calmly and softly to him. His demeanor changed and he settled down allowing the pre-op nurse to insert the IV quickly and smoothly. This may not seem like an impressive gesture but I can assure you to the pre-op nurses in Endoscopy it was a life saver. Dr. P schedules cases every 30 minutes and every minute is precious when the pre-op nurses are trying to ensure patients are ready in a timely manner. There is little time for anything to go wrong or be out of the ordinary.
Janel is an exceptional nurse and I’ve never met a more caring and genuinely kind person. She routinely works in the recovery area of Endoscopy and nothing makes me prouder than to have the patients last impression of their Endoscopy experience be of Janel.