‘They made a very difficult day manageable and I am so thankful they were there.’

A grateful patient expresses her thanks to two nurses at Powell River General Hospital:

Good day!

I just wanted to pass along a “thank you” to Lisa Stride, one of your OR nurses. She truly went above and beyond to make me comfortable, and was a wonderful person to have by my side while I was in for a recent procedure.

I was told by the doctor who would be doing my procedure to come through the ER at 10 am. Upon arriving, my vitals were taken and I was told to wait in the OR waiting room and that my doctor would be notified that I was here. Over an hour and a half of waiting with no updates or indication of what was next – Lisa offered to look into it for me (she had been taking patients back into the OR and saw me waiting). A short while later she called me back and said she didn’t know what the doctor’s plan was but that he was in surgery so she offered me a bed and some warm blankets to make the wait more comfortable. She even turned on some music to keep me content and comfortable.

Lisa was so wonderful, and calm and so encouraging that this procedure meant closure and a new beginning and moving forward. She took the time to get to know me and my husband, and she was so sweet and caring.

After waiting four hours, it was finally time to go into the OR. My husband was told to go back out to the waiting room, and Lisa stayed with me filling out paperwork and giving me the required medication etc. She was very comforting, especially as my anxiety increased. I asked her dumb questions just to keep my mind off what was ahead of me, and she politely answered them and made me laugh, too. Walking into the OR was scary, and she truly made sure I was OK before she left.

I didn’t get to see her after the procedure. I was in the very capable hands of her co-worker, whose name I unfortunately can’t remember! She was just as wonderful as Lisa, offering encouragement and advice on my recovery. She was friendly, and took extra care to ensure I was comfortable and taken care of.

These two nurses made a very difficult day manageable and I am so thankful they were there. I hope they get the recognition they deserve. Although I wish I didn’t have to be there at all in the first place, my experience with the two OR nurses made it not feel so bad and they really did go above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable.

Please pass this along to whoever these wonderful Nurses report to, as I feel it is important they know how great of a job they are doing. All too often we only hear about the bad stories, and I really do wish for their supervisors to hear the good!

Thank you so much.