When you are an emergency room nurse, developing relationships with your patient's is very different than in other areas of hospital nursing. You have to develop a trusting, confident relationship very quickly, sometimes within minutes and in a very stressful environment.

Rebecca Curti has been a nurse that I have admired for over 20 years now, and Friday was just another reason why. I was in charge when I gave her what I anticipated was going to be a challenging patient. A 39 year old gentleman with cognitive impairments, probably autism and impulse control issues. The patient was here for a high blood sugar. From the moment that the patient got into the room and did not want to take off his shirt, Rebecca had the situation under control. She talked in a direct manner, short explanations, did not force anything. Within 15 minutes, Rebecca had written out a sheet of paper with seven sentences of exactly what we would do "step by step". Rebecca kept to those steps and kept the patient calm. Rebecca was very respectful of the patient.

With Rebecca's experience and pride in her care of every patient, she had the situation under control from the moment the ambulance got to the emergency room. This was a "hard" patient to take care of. You need an extreme amount of patience and an idea of what kind of teaching and guidance this patient will need. You need to be able to "think outside of the box." A number of other nurses did help walk around and talk with the patient to help with distraction techniques, but Rebecca was the force behind getting it all done.

I am honored to nominate Rebecca Curti for a DAISY Award for her extraordinary caring, and unending compassion that she maintains after so many years of nursing. It is truly an honor to work besides her and to continue to learn from her.