Ali provides personalized care and goes above and beyond for each of her patients.
Ali was taking care of a confused stroke patient. The patient was admitted with a hemorrhagic stroke which led him to be confused and very irritable. It so happened that the patient's 78th birthday was on the night Ali was assigned to him. Due to his confusion, he was unaware of where he was, but he knew his full name and that it was his birthday. So, Ali decided to cheer him by singing a happy birthday song. This had been Ali's third time having him as her patient. Although he was a tough one to work with, he always had a smile on his face and laughed at the nurse's jokes.
The night before his birthday, the patient's son-in-law hung up a "happy birthday" sign in his room. So early in the morning, Ali told the charge nurse that it would be nice if everyone on the unit could sing a birthday song to her patient. She and two of her colleagues immediately started out to work on their celebration plans. They made a "cake" out of towels and added some streamers from previous unit parties to decorate their towel cake. She then called every nurse and tech on the floor to come to her patient's room to sing!
I had the privilege of being there as well. I was so thrilled to see our entire night team, all nurses and CNAs around Ali's patient. It was so sweet to see a smile on his face and a thumbs up for the nurses. Ali said, "Sometimes when we have the ability and extra time to do something special for our patients, it means a lot to them and to the nurses!"
Ali admitted a very sick, septic patient. She sat at the computer outside her room and made sure to check on the patient every hour. A few days later, she was assigned to her again. Ali set up FaceTime with her husband and each of her children to see and talk with her. She noticed that her hair was very matted from lying in bed. Ali managed to carve enough time to give her an elaborate bed bath. She got her comfortable with a special neck pillow and tucked pillows under every limb. She and her CNA washed her patient's hair and used a detangler. They split her hair in half and spent time getting all of the knots out strand by strand, and then braided her hair. The patient's husband had also dropped off some balloons and pictures. Ali made a collage of photos taped onto an open manilla folder so the patient can see all the pictures of her family members. She read the sweet notes to the patient that her family wrote, and their eyes welled up with tears.
Ali said, "I wanted to do all of this for her because she seemed very upset that her health was not improving and that she could not see or talk to her family. She and her family were very thankful for the care she was receiving!"
When I followed up with the patient, she was extremely grateful for Ali's care. She described the day she received a bed bath as "the best day in her life". She added that she felt like a new person, so clean and very fresh!