UMHS Nurses Provide True Comprehensive Care

In facilitating a unique experience, nurses help a new widower say goodbye to his wife of 63 years.

To be able to perform their duties adequately, nurses need finely tuned medical and scientific skills and the ability to act quickly and accurately under pressure. To be able to perform their duties exceptionally, however, they need even more than that.

The nurses at the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) are some of the best in the world, something they’ve proven time and again through exceptional healthcare and their ability to view the patient not only as a diagnosis, but as a person with needs that transcend the realm of medicine.

When an older man came to the University of Michigan hospital after a fire their destroyed his home, the nurses went to work. Unfortunately, his wife of 63 years, Grace Tippett, died of smoke inhalation at the scene. Because of his own injuries, Mr. Tippett would not be able to attend her funeral, and so – at the request of the family – U-M nurses facilitated a unique way for Mr. Tippett to say goodbye to his wife, bringing her body to the hospital where he could see her. According to a report by AnnArbor.com, their daughter, “Suzanne Tippett, who is a registered nurse but doesn’t work at U-M hospital, said what the hospital did was remarkable. ‘U of M moved heaven and earth to get her down there.’”

Read the full AnnArbor.com article.