May 2016
Jenna
Storey
,
RN
ICU
Carolinas HealthCare System NorthEast
Concord
,
NC
United States

 

 

 

This week one of my co-workers lost her husband after a long battle with cancer. She just stopped by my office to pick up some food that a few of us prepared for her and was relating to me her experience with regards to her husband's stay on the unit. She had nothing but nice things to say and expressed how patient and accommodating the staff was to the many visitors that he had. He was employed at CMC Main and had many of his co-workers come to visit him. But the thing that touched her most was that Jenna allowed their six-year-old granddaughter to crawl up in the bed with her "papa" and sleep with him until early morning. They are pretty much raising that grandchild and she told her grandmother that the only thing she wanted was to get in bed and sleep with her papa. At the time, he was not even aware that she was there. However, that was very special not only to the child, but to her grandmother as well.
Sometimes I think we focus too much on the rules, straight bed linens and protecting our IV lines and totally miss opportunities like this to bring special moments in difficult time to hurting families. Kudos to Jenna, who "bent" the rules.