Heather Hostetler, NICU
Please join the Center for Nursing Excellence in congratulating Heather Hostetler, RN for being selected as the DAISY Award recipient for the month of March!
Heather works in the NICU and was nominated by three different patient family members. The nominations below reflects how Heather impacted their lives in a very special way.
Family Member of Patient #1
Heather is like a ray of sunshine coming in the room. It is obvious she loves what she does. She talks to our baby like it is hers. I am one of the grandparents and she always includes me when she is telling us about the baby. We feel very blessed to have her as one of the nurses.
Family Member of Patient #2
I know when Heather is my baby’s nurse she is in good hands. She cares for my baby as if she is her own; dressing her, talking to her when I am not here, and comforting her when she is upset. From our stay in the hospital so far, I can easily tell which nurse takes this as just a job and which nurse actually has a passion for caring for the babies. Heather went above and beyond with our baby girl. We are so incredibly thankful to have met such a sweet person!! She represents UAMS in such a positive way.
Family Member of Patient #3
When I was 25 weeks pregnant, we were airlifted to UAMS. My daughter was born less than 3 hours later. I was a nervous wreck since I had already lost a baby girl at 20 weeks and 5 days – almost 5 years to this day. My sweet baby girl was born weighing 1 pound and 9 ounces and I felt love like no other. She was placed in the NICU and I fell in love with the staff immediately.
On day 4 she began to have Brady’s. The doctors explained to me that this was normal in preemie babies so I began to pray they would get better. The next day Heather was assigned to be our nurse and I thought, wow this nurse seems like she will be amazing. Heather introduced herself and wrote all my baby’s information on the bulletin board.
My daughter began to have Brady’s back to back and kept Heather at her bedside for what seemed like hours. I couldn’t believe this nurse was taking her time with my micro preemie and giving her all the attention she needed and required. Heather stayed calm and talked to me through the process to let me know what was going on.
I had just found out a couple days prior that I could have primary nurses. So during all of this, I politely asked Heather if she would be our primary. She explained that she had never been a primary but would let me know. She could have easily said no because my baby required so much attention. However, she agreed after praying about it.
Heather could always tell when my daughter was happy or mad and she always made me feel like the best mother in the world.
At 8 weeks old my baby was stable enough to be transported to a hospital near our home. Heather came to the rescue and bagged all of our memory keepsake items. I will forever cherish my memories at UAMS because Heather made my days so much easier. My daughter and I will always love Heather and I will share with her what a great nurse she had at UAMS. I want to publicly thank Heather for all of her hard work and dedication to the UAMS NICU.