Stephanie Rump is the definition of the phrase "above and beyond". My significant other, W, has been in the ICU several times over the last year. Stephanie worked with him and showed such compassion and personalized attention to his care every time he was on that unit. While his cognitive capacity has somewhat diminished, there are a few things that really reach him. One of those come from his love of music, particularly the "oldies" from the '50s and '60s. I brought him his radio, and he was listening to it while Stephanie was taking care of him. She was helping him get into his chair and she just started singing to him along with the song. He started singing, as well. They even did a little dance as she worked with him. There was a spark of understanding that came about from that one small gesture. I understand that this is not necessarily a nursing thing, but it certainly was a compassionate thing. Those are the things that someone is born with. I will always think of Stephanie when I hear "Bring it on home to me" by Sam Cook.
We fast forward to two months later when W was admitted once again. While he was in his room, he went into a respiratory event that required a rapid response. I had never witnessed anyone going through what W was going through. Emotionally, I fell apart. The entire group came so quickly. This group amazed me. Awesome does not begin to describe their knowledge, their calmness and their confidence in the work that they were doing. It was as if the entire unit shared a brain and each part of the body of responders were doing what they needed to do to accomplish the goal of saving the life of their patient. Afterward, the decision was made to take W back to the ICU. He looked up at Stephanie and the first thing he said coming out of that event was "I know you". He had remembered the incident from the former time he had been there. It brought him comfort in knowing that this familiar nurse had helped him before. She looked at him and said, "I remember you too, we sang and danced together". In addition, the one thing that affected me so much was after they were moving him, Stephanie stopped to reassure me that things were ok. I have to admit, when I saw her come into his room, it brought peace to me, as well as W.