Barb is one of Stella’s primary nurses. Stella and Barb have a close, almost mother-daughter relationship, as Barb has cared for Stella since she was six years old. Barb is deeply affected by an experience she had years prior, when she was a new nurse; she let two cystic fibrosis patients—one of whom had B. cepacia—break the rule of staying six feet apart, because they were in love and Barb wanted them to be happy. They both ended up dying prematurely after the one with B. cepacia transmitted the infection to the other. After this experience Barb became a stickler for the six-foot guideline. She harshly punishes Will, Stella, and Poe whenever she finds them breaking the hospital’s rules.