Suzie honoured with award for showing tremendous compassion to ICU patient and his family
A Royal Derby Hospital nurse has been labelled “a credit to the Intensive Care Unit” for the support she’s shown to a patient and his family since being redeployed back “home” to the department during the pandemic.
Registered Nurse Suzie Parsons was nominated by one of her colleagues to receive a UHBD Making a Difference Award, as a small thank you for helping make their husband’s near 100-day stay in hospital “a little easier”.
Suzie has gone out of her way to keep the whole family up to date through each step of their loved one’s time in hospital, while providing fantastic care to the patient, who has spent an extended period in ICU recovering from a stroke.
The nomination read: “As a nurse myself and someone who works in the Trust, I have found the support from Suzie truly amazing. She has gone above and beyond in her role, not only supporting my husband who is still in ICU after having a stroke, but also the children and me.
“After being told that there was no option and that he would need to be put on a ventilator, he has made amazing progression since and is now doing things that even three weeks ago were not thought to be possible. We know he is on a long road to recovery but Suzie has made this time a little easier by giving me up to date information and looking after me, my husband and the whole family. She is truly a credit to ICU and the hospital in general.”
We were delighted to this week award Suzie with an Excellent Employee Award, to recognise the huge difference she’s made to this patient and his family.
Suzie said: “To me, this is my job and passion, and I come in because I want to care for patients while they’re in hospital, not to be given any thanks. When you do get it though, it is amazing. It’s so lovely because I genuinely didn’t expect it. I’ve cared for this patient for so long now, so it made me cry when I read the nomination!”
Presenting Suzie with her award, Cathy Winfield, Executive Chief Nurse at UHDB, said: “The family have said that this patient has made amazing progress under your care and while he still has a long road to recovery, you have made it all a little bit easier for them, which is great to hear. Thank you for everything that you do. I think it is really difficult to put it into words how thankful we are because it is so heartfelt, but we hugely appreciate everything you and your team are doing.”
After spending the last 16 years working in Theatres in our Recovery team, where she was senior sister, Suzie agreed to be redeployed to our ICU team at RDH in March 2020, and then once again in November 2020, during the peak of Covid-19.
Having originally worked as a nurse in ICU at the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary more than 20 years ago, Suzie made the decision to make the switch back permanently following her second redeployment.
She added: “Returning to ICU has very much felt like coming home. I felt that I wanted to come back after my first redeployment but wasn’t sure if that was just because of the excitement and adrenaline of working here during Covid. But when I came back the second time, I really remembered what ICU was all about and how much I enjoy it.”
