DAISY Award—Joel Calderon, B.S.N., R.N., P.C.C.N.

Joel Calderon, BSN, RN, PCCN
East 6 Cardiothoracic PCU

My son took me to the hospital, I thought it was for a checkup but was I wrong, therefore I spent seven days in the hospital. Along came nurse Joel, he was all smiles when we met, he was so nice. He told me he would be my nurse and I was happy with him. I was very upset when I learned I had to stay there. I wanted to go home but feeling such, I had to stay. He knew I was upset (I was teary eyed) so he sat down and talked to me to tell me why I had to stay. He said I will take good care of you and help you with whatever bothers you. When I was upset about a test I had to take, he would tell me what the test was for and what they would do. When he was near my room he would stop in and say hello and check in to see if I needed something. There were a lot of nurses but only one #1 Nurse, Joel. He uses perfect delivery of care all the way around. Joel helped me get late trays and told me I could fill out what I wanted to eat. Each time when the coffee came it was cold, Joel knew this bothered me and he always came back with hot coffee. He is caring. One day I asked if I could have a cookie, he said I will see what I can do and guess what, he brought me graham crackers, two of them! I was a happy camper. One thing I said to him, the eggs were fried good but they have no taste because I can’t have salt. He said I’ll fix it and he got some wonderful salsa that helped. I can move freely now (I lost 27 lbs. of fluid in 7 days) when I got home because he took such good care of me and made me laugh when I was sad. There were other nice nurses like Joel, but he’s my gold star. I had to come back to the hospital and Joel was off that day, but he came back the next day. I was surprised and glad to see him because I knew it was his day off. I asked him what he was doing here, and he said, “I came in extra, so I’m here to take care of you!” Joel would always check on me and sit beside me and make sure I was ok and made me feel safe because I knew I was in good hands! I can’t say enough about Joel!