On a recent day at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, staff nurse Heidi Duran, BSN, RN, floated from her typical inpatient unit to the hospital’s orthopaedic unit. For one of her patients that day, this turn of events proved truly impactful.
Duran was assigned to a patient recovering from shoulder surgery. When she met him, her patient was struggling to manage his pain and frustrated that he would have to stay the night in the hospital. Duran quickly assessed his needs and came up with a care plan.
In a letter, her patient later wrote:
From the first greeting, Heidi said, “I won’t give up until I solve this. Don’t worry.” Amazing. It was the worst of days, but Heidi, often literally, held our hands through the whole ordeal. She was a teacher, a caretaker and a friend. And a complete rockstar. By the end, we all agreed that she did exactly as she promised she would do. In her shift, she solved it all, and walked me through on the whiteboard what was needed to proceed after she left.”
For Duran, going above and beyond to make her patients more comfortable and their hospital stays easier is part of what she loves about her job. “It is a privilege and an honor to call myself a nurse,” she says.
Duran was honored with a DAISY Award for her efforts. The DAISY Award, established by the DAISY Foundation, is named in memory of J. Patrick Barnes who died at the age of 33 from Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), an auto-immune disease. The Barnes Family was inspired by the care that Patrick received and established this unique program to recognize and thank the nurses nationwide who make a profound difference in the lives of their patients and families.