Pam Breiner
February 2014
Pam
Breiner
,
BSN, RNC-NIIC
NICU
The Chester County Hospital
West Chester
,
PA
United States
In the early morning of January 27th, after so many excellent nurses and physicians gave their exemplary efforts to stabilize a premature infant, he died. In health care we sometimes view patient death a failure, but for J. his death was peaceful and his death gave the opportunity for Pam to exemplify compassion in its most perfect way. Not only for J., but for his mother and extended family Pam's actions are worthy of a DAISY Award.
After J,'s mother had held her baby and returned to her room, Pam photographed J. in such a way that these photographs with be a forever treasure for this family. I was not present for this, but as I was getting report in the morning after, Pam shared these photos with me. She had obviously taken great care in the infants position, dress and background. She carefully placed all of the photographs in a memory box and personally brought it to J.'s mother.
Having survived my own daughter Emma's premature death 10 years ago, I found myself wishing I had photos like J.'s. He looks so perfect and she had placed his arms and hands around a little heart shaped pillow. I am in awe of Pam's composure and ability to create such a beautiful gift that this mother will cherish in 1, 2 or even 10 or 20 years. I know that J.'s mom will cherish Pam's gift of compassion forever.
...
Pam is a pleasure to work with and delivers excellent care and compassion to both her patients and families every day she works. Recently, we had a very sick patient that had complication after complication. Pam was the charge nurse and assisted the nurse caring for the patient with great knowledge and calmness. Her level of expertise and organization was truly essential in quality care being delivered. Unfortunately, the patient was extremely sick and the decision was to withdraw the ventilator and the many therapies required. Pam was so calm and caring in explaining to the family what was going on and what would happen. The mother was completely grief stricken and Pam assisted the mother in expressing her wishes during this difficult time. Pam never left the bedside, even after the patient had died. Then while preparing the patient for the morgue, Pam showed such great respect towards the tiny patient and prepared wonderful memorabilia and pictures for the family.
This is just one example of the caring and compassion Pam delivers on a day to day basis and we are proud to have her as part of our team.
After J,'s mother had held her baby and returned to her room, Pam photographed J. in such a way that these photographs with be a forever treasure for this family. I was not present for this, but as I was getting report in the morning after, Pam shared these photos with me. She had obviously taken great care in the infants position, dress and background. She carefully placed all of the photographs in a memory box and personally brought it to J.'s mother.
Having survived my own daughter Emma's premature death 10 years ago, I found myself wishing I had photos like J.'s. He looks so perfect and she had placed his arms and hands around a little heart shaped pillow. I am in awe of Pam's composure and ability to create such a beautiful gift that this mother will cherish in 1, 2 or even 10 or 20 years. I know that J.'s mom will cherish Pam's gift of compassion forever.
...
Pam is a pleasure to work with and delivers excellent care and compassion to both her patients and families every day she works. Recently, we had a very sick patient that had complication after complication. Pam was the charge nurse and assisted the nurse caring for the patient with great knowledge and calmness. Her level of expertise and organization was truly essential in quality care being delivered. Unfortunately, the patient was extremely sick and the decision was to withdraw the ventilator and the many therapies required. Pam was so calm and caring in explaining to the family what was going on and what would happen. The mother was completely grief stricken and Pam assisted the mother in expressing her wishes during this difficult time. Pam never left the bedside, even after the patient had died. Then while preparing the patient for the morgue, Pam showed such great respect towards the tiny patient and prepared wonderful memorabilia and pictures for the family.
This is just one example of the caring and compassion Pam delivers on a day to day basis and we are proud to have her as part of our team.