Nurse Jena Hollinshead recently earned the quarterly Service of the Heart Award from St. Anthony Medical Center, where she works in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit.

The award honors employees for the exceptional customer service they provide to patients, visitors and employees.

Hollinshead, 26, is a registered nurse and holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She earned the award after treating a female teenage patient who was waiting for surgery to occur a few days later, and couldn’t sit up, couldn’t roll over, and was struggling emotionally, according to a news release.

“I feel like anything that we can do to make patient care better, we really should do it,” she stated in the release. I saw the need for something extra for her. Patients have different needs that can be met in different ways. For some, it’s ice cream. For others, it’s holding their hand.”

For this patient, Hollingshead thought a spa day would help.

“I have sisters,” Hollinshead stated. “We would always paint each other’s nails and it always made us feel better.”

Hollinshead gave the young woman a manicure, pedicure, shampoo and style. She even spent her own money at the Gift Shop to buy shampoo so the patient’s hair would smell pretty.

“She was a lot happier,” the nurse remembered. “She smiled a lot more. She was a lot more social with her visitors. I think she felt more confident and more like herself.”