Today we had an angry, anxious, and volatile Veteran present at our clinic after having a less-than-satisfactory experience elsewhere. While I was talking to him and working towards de-escalation, we developed a treatment plan including Battle Field Acupuncture. The Veteran has used acupuncture in the past with great results and he was pleasantly surprised to find we offered it here at the Cheyenne VA. He was then very invested in obtaining BFA and felt this would truly help him. This knowledge of BFA is what really helped de-escalate this Veteran.

Requests for BFA on TEAMS were met with radio silence. I then reached out to the clinicians who I am familiar with who do this and for one reason or another, they were not available. I then reached out to Andi and H. H was working from home and offered to come into the clinic to perform BFA. Andi went on the search to find a clinician who could come over to help this Veteran who was already in-house. She found H who was already doing double duty today, yet she came. These three VA Nurses looked beyond what they were immediately tasked to do, put the Veteran at the center of their moment, and provided excellent patient care. Their investment in our veterans truly changed the course of this encounter. The Veteran left feeling cared for and valued!