PHOTOCAPTION: Pictured from left to right: Jim Hazlett, BSN, RN, MICU nurse manager, Tom Sullivan, BSN, RN, MICU staff nurse, Sharon Millinghausen, MSN, RN, vice president, Medical/Cardiac/Specialty Services, and Patricia Nichols, MSN, RN, CCRN, MICU clinical nurse specialist.

Tom was nominated by the unit’s nurse manager, Jim Hazlett, BSN, RN. Here is an excerpt from his nomination letter. “This past January an elderly female patient was admitted to the MICU after an extended stay at a local hospital,” Jim wrote. “The family was quite upset with the care of their loved one at the outside hospital and understandably had concerns as she was admitted to Jefferson. Tom went above and beyond to explain what our plan was and to set expectations for the family. He responded quickly to requests and took that extra time to fully answer any questions.”

Jim explained that the patient was not responding to any interventions and the family came to the decision to withdraw aggressive care measures on late Friday afternoon. They had two requests of the staff. One was to wait to withdraw care until the patient's children could all be at her side. The second was that Tom be the nurse who would care for her in her last bit of time with us.

The gathering of family took until the next morning. Unfortunately, Tom was scheduled to be off, but that didn't stop him. He knew of the family's request and made arrangements with the unit charge nurses to call him when the family was ready. That call came at about 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and Tom came right in.

“Tom cared for the patient and her family until the very end which took approximately seven hours,” Jim noted. “He went more than the extra mile to ensure the patient's and the family’s comfort through that very difficult end-of-life process. I feel that this is the perfect example of a DAISY Nurse.”