One of 11 awards being presented at next month’s Medway Annual Star Awards, the Hospital Hero Award is nominated by the public and recognises a hospital worker who has done something extraordinary or made a real difference to patients’ lives, or their friends or family.
Clinical Sister Michelle Fitzpatrick is one of five finalists chosen by the award sponsor, Kent Messenger.
Having worked in the NHS for 20 years, Michelle was nominated as a hospital hero by the family of a patient she had cared for.
The patient’s relatives said she washed their loved one’s hair, sprayed her with perfume and sorted keepsake memory boxes in her last moments.
The nomination, from the patient’s daughter, said: “Having someone like Michelle in the ICU helped us as a family get through the worst moments of our life as she was such a support to us, talking about our feelings and being a shoulder to cry on and let our emotion out, all whilst taking exceptional care of our mum. We are forever grateful for the care and love that Michelle showed us and our mum in those few days, and we want to give something back to her as she truly deserves it.”
Michelle said: “It’s very humbling that someone has taken the time out to write something so touching at probably one of the worst times of their life.
“Just because we can’t fix everybody we can still make a difference even if it’s towards the end of their life.”
Michelle, who has been working in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for six years, came into nursing late in life from a career in payroll.
She said: “It was the death of my grandmother that made me go into it – it wasn’t a good experience and I thought, I could actually do a good job.”
“When someone is passing away there are no second chances. It has to be right because this is something that sticks with the relatives.”
Read Michelle’s story on Kent Online to read more about why she has been nominated as a Medway Maritime Hospital Hero.
Look out for stories about the other two finalists in the Medway Messenger and on Kent Online in the coming weeks. Read more about our finalists Emily Brown and Dr Saadia Shah.
The winner of the Hospital Hero Award will be announced at our awards ceremony in June.