Employee of the Month treats patients like they are her family

Jeannie Grant is Boone Hospital Center’s Employee of the Month for February 2013. Click here to nominate someone for Employee of the Month.

In her service as a nurse, Jeannie Grant goes above and beyond to care for each of her patients like they are members of her own family.

She often thinks back to the experience of taking care of her grandma before she passed away. “Now, I just try to take care of every patient as if they’re my grandma,” she said.

Born in Nebraska, Jeannie went to high school in Kansas City and moved to Columbia for college. She joined Boone Hospital nine years ago working as a patient care tech in cardiology. After completing nursing school at Columbia College, she transferred to the ICU where she now serves.

“I love it so much, I get excited to go to work,” she said. “It’s borderline obnoxious some days, especially at 7 a.m. in the morning.”

Jeannie said one of the most rewarding aspects of her job is being assigned a difficult patient. In these cases, Jeannie says she simply shows them genuine care.

“I can be really bossy and tough on my patients, but it’s all out of love,” she said. “I think that when patients can tell that the people taking care of them genuinely care about them and have their best interests at heart, they tend to be more cooperative.”

“They see me walk in their room with my mohawk and they’re rolling their eyes,” she said. “But by the end of the day, they’re usually falling in love with me. That’s my favorite thing in the world.”

Outside of work, Jeannie enjoys spending time with her family and eagerly awaits Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

“I like to live every week as if it’s Shark Week,” she said.

Here is a quote from one of many nominations Jeannie received for employee of the month:

“If a family member of mine or I were in the hospital, I would hope that we would get the care that Jean gives to people.  She is kind to everyone, no matter the challenge.  She gives her patients dignity and respect, allowing them to ‘fall into her’ for comfort.  She is a wonderful nurse.”