Juan Sanchez, who I have had the privilege of working with for the last four years, exemplifies the core values of Florida Hospital consistently. He is a CN3, serves as preceptor, wound resource, relief charge, active on the NPC, and is in the final stages of completing his BSN. He was a finalist for the Nursing Excellence award for Excellence in Patient Care for the Winter Park Campus in 2008 and 2010. His passion for his patients, their families, and the nursing profession is limitless. I would like to share a story with you that I feel is a great example of how he lives the ICBEST model, and why he truly deserves to be recognized for his efforts.

Juan frequently cares for the most critical of our ICU patients and does so with compassion and grace. One particular patient was a young girl with a fatal illness who had been critically ill for an extended period of time. When she was finally off sedation and beginning to make slight improvements, he decided to help lift her spirits by shampooing her long blonde hair. He worked and worked, but she had been lying on the pillow for so long that she had tremendous knots in her hair that neither he nor her mother could get out. Being a young girl, she did not want to simply cut the knots out of her long hair. This nominee had a wonderful idea, and with her mother’s permission, he called a friend that was a hairdresser. The following day, the patient was treated to a “spa experience” in her hospital room. Her hair was washed, detangled, dried, and she was made to feel like a princess. This is just one of many examples of how Juan goes above and beyond for his patients every day. The young lady and her mother never forgot how he went above and beyond for her.