I was hired as a new grad night shifter into the ICU. On my very first night in the ICU, one of the patients my preceptor and I had was a middle aged lady with Down Syndrome. The patient was having a rough night, trying to continuously get out of bed and was very agitated. Unfortunately, due to the demands of our 2nd, more critical patient, we could not stay in the room for extended periods of time to give her the attention she needed to help calm her down. Lisa, our charge nurse, arranged her schedule so she could sit with the patient for over an hour, talking to her and rubbing her feet. The patient calmed down, relaxed, and was able to sleep most of the shift. When driving home after completing my first shift as a RN, I could not help but reflect back on the night. I felt a sense of honor and pride in being given the opportunity to work at CMH surrounded by co-workers, including our superiors, who genuinely cared about the patients. This is only the first of a countless number of stories I can share about Lisa.

Lisa is continually used as a resource by staff throughout the entire hospital for her wealth of knowledge, experience, amazing ability to critically think during tough situation, and her willingness to work as a team to assist in any role--whether it is assisting in giving a bed bath or helping to stabilize a critical post-op open heart patient in order to send the patient back to the OR.

Lisa is the type of nurse we should all strive to become. It is an honor to work with her.