The hour is late. Lisa Rek, R.N., gathers her things and makes her way down a fluorescent light-filled hallway of 7 North. She maneuvers a bag a clothes under one arm as she taps the screen of the time clock, officially ending her shift.

A fellow nurse gives her a quizzical look as she waits for her turn to clock out. Laundry is not something nurses usually tote around.

“One of my patients,” explains Rek, gesturing to the bag. “She mentioned she was wearing her last clean clothes.”

A fresh hospital gown would have been acceptable by most standards, yet far from the comfort provided by wearing one’s own clothes. Rek knows how much this small comfort means to her patient.

She is exhausted from a long, busy shift though that isn’t slowing her down. Tomorrow she will return to check in on her patient, laundry bag in tow filled with fluffed and folded clothes.