Piedmont Atlanta Hospital registered nurse Elizabeth King was recently honored with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Nursing Excellence Award. Her nominator, Joanna Reid, shares why she nominated King for the award. “I’ve been a patient at Piedmont Hospital for more than a decade,” Reid says.

Reid has a number of medical conditions that have required an array of medical treatments, surgeries and lengthy hospital stays. It was during her time as an inpatient during the summer of 2010 that she met Elizabeth King, RN, a nurse on Piedmont Atlanta’s oncology floor.

She was suffering from bacterial meningitis, a large open wound on the back of her head and had a drain in her spine. “I was not in the best of spirits, as you can imagine,” Reid explains. “Liz walked in and was an incredible nurse. At the time, I had no idea how involved she would be in my care over the next several years.”

The bond between nurse and patient

“Growing up, I was very sickly, so I knew what it felt like to be sick as a patient,” King says. “That’s one of the reasons I went into nursing.” King says she clicked with Reid because both had suffered from childhood illnesses. “We bonded,” King says. “She’s had over 50 surgeries, which is incredible for any patient to go through.

"To have the opportunity to be there for somebody who is going through those things is very unique and very rewarding.” King has held Reid’s hand and calmed her as she faced numerous surgeries and recoveries. “Liz was different in the sense that she really did do all of the incredibly important caregiving, but she really connected with me as a person outside of my medical problems.”

Reid’s medical situation is one of a kind, meaning there is no documented case of another patient having the same combination of conditions. “That puts us in the unknown – we don’t really know what we’re going to do. A lot of times, we’re just trying to figure it out and do the best we can, which causes a lot of fear,” Reid says.

“Liz really encouraged me to do the best I could, and we would make jokes about it. She helped me deal with things on a day-to-day basis. She really inspired me to live my life to the best of my ability, outside of my medical problems.” For more information on nursing at Piedmont, click here.

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