Care Partner Appreciation

It is 3:00 am and hospital census is high. Some patients are deep in healing sleep. Some are restless with pain or discomfort of their illness or injury. And, others are fighting for their lives.

On this particular morning, the soothing smell of freshly made pancakes and maple syrup serve as a warm greeting to our third shift care partners. And serving up this hearty breakfast are Medical/Surgical Director Alex Gutierrez, Periop/Diagnostic Services Executive Director Matt Graybill, Information Governance Executive Director LeeAnn Cottrell and Recruitment Assistant Walter Leblanc.

From 3 a.m. until 5 a.m. they served breakfast to our fellow care partners who are ensuring safe and healing care for our patients through the night. And they also served up love, caring and appreciation for the healing work that is being performed on behalf of the patients and families in our care.

The breakfast was a healing moment for the team to come together as a family of care partners. While the pancakes helped to refuel the minds, bodies, and spirits of our care partners, it also served to refuel, or remind us of, our passion for our purpose to provide healing experiences for everyone all the time®.

Summer Witcher, RN, shared how grateful she was for the breakfast, and also how thankful she was for her fellow care partners: “I just wanted to say thank you for the breakfast. It was so very nice after a busy night!” she said. “I also wanted to recognize some people from my shift last night. I had a critical situation happen with a patient and my Clinical Coordinator Eliza Talplacido, RN was great. She helped me call the doctors as I was taking care of the patient. I also want to thank my awesome CNA Meagan Hearn. Without her I would not have made it through (that) night! And a huge thank you to Elvira Nevels who was sitting with the patient that evening and notified me of the situation right away! Also, the Critical Assessment Team (CAT) nurses are so great. Hazel Sloan, RN and Christine Rich, RN came and helped me so much. Christine even came back hours later to make sure everything was OK and gave me some recommendations for day shift.

“Whenever we work as a team like this, it makes me remember why I became a nurse.”