Michelle Brown
July 2018
Michelle
Brown
,
RN
Labor and Delivery
PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend
Springfield
,
OR
United States
Michelle was my night shift nurse over the course of two nights worth of laboring to bring my baby girl into the world. My labor was long and complicated as I was being induced and my body was not responding to the medications in a way that made any nurse's job easy. After 24 hours of laboring, things were starting to get worrisome as I was not making much progress and my baby, and I were both showing signs of stress. It was determined that I needed to progress much faster and soon.
When Michelle came on shift on the second evening, she became my champion. She spoke to the doctor about what progress she needed to see and what timeline and then came to me with a suggestion. She offered to come into my room every 30 minutes to manually manipulate my body into different positions so that could induce more productive labor and would adjust my Pitocin every 30 minutes based off of what she was seeing. So, for 8 hours straight overnight, she would come into my room, lift and contort my body into crazy positions, adjust my Pitocin, and hold my hand as I went through stronger and stronger contractions while my husband slept. It was grueling. She was so determined to do everything she could to try and fulfill my birth plan. I can imagine that it was exceptionally tiring for her as well to be lifting and moving my increasingly tired body over the entirety of her shift. The next morning, the doctor came in and found that I had progressed from 3cm to 9 cm overnight! I completely believe that was because of Michelle and her dedication to me. I still remember the smile on her face and we met each other's eyes when the doctor announced I was ready to push, which unfortunately was just at the end of her shift. Before she left for the day, she opened my room door and I hear clapping and cheering coming from the nurse's station. She said that she had been keeping everyone updated on my progress and they were celebrating me!
Michelle exemplifies what this award stands for in my eyes, a nurse who is fiercely dedicated to her patients and serves them in every capacity she can, even when it promises to be exhausting with no promise of seeing the positive outcome in the end.
When Michelle came on shift on the second evening, she became my champion. She spoke to the doctor about what progress she needed to see and what timeline and then came to me with a suggestion. She offered to come into my room every 30 minutes to manually manipulate my body into different positions so that could induce more productive labor and would adjust my Pitocin every 30 minutes based off of what she was seeing. So, for 8 hours straight overnight, she would come into my room, lift and contort my body into crazy positions, adjust my Pitocin, and hold my hand as I went through stronger and stronger contractions while my husband slept. It was grueling. She was so determined to do everything she could to try and fulfill my birth plan. I can imagine that it was exceptionally tiring for her as well to be lifting and moving my increasingly tired body over the entirety of her shift. The next morning, the doctor came in and found that I had progressed from 3cm to 9 cm overnight! I completely believe that was because of Michelle and her dedication to me. I still remember the smile on her face and we met each other's eyes when the doctor announced I was ready to push, which unfortunately was just at the end of her shift. Before she left for the day, she opened my room door and I hear clapping and cheering coming from the nurse's station. She said that she had been keeping everyone updated on my progress and they were celebrating me!
Michelle exemplifies what this award stands for in my eyes, a nurse who is fiercely dedicated to her patients and serves them in every capacity she can, even when it promises to be exhausting with no promise of seeing the positive outcome in the end.