My son, A, was admitted to the hospital for a post tonsillectomy bleed and pneumonia. It had been a very trying, exhausting and emotionally filled week of recovery thus far. I am also a nurse here at CCH and as a mother I had lost a lot of objectivity caring for my baby. On our first night on Pediatrics, Andria took over the care of my son at 11PM. At that point his pain was still not well controlled. He was tired and I was as well. I couldn't decide what was best for his pain control, how often I wanted to have meds given or basically what to do. I was exhausted and couldn't organize my thoughts well enough to make any more decisions. I needed someone else to make them for me. I was too involved to be objective and frankly, too tired and emotional to trust I could make the right ones. I had decided and somewhat demanded that he have meds every 2 hours overnight regardless of whether he was asleep or not. We both passed out around 2AM. When I woke at 6:30, Andria told me that she held his doses at 4 and 6 because he looked too comfortable and content to be medicated. At first I thought - OH NO! He is going to wake up and be so uncomfortable!
Andria left at 7am and Andrew continued to sleep peacefully until 9:30. He woke - in a little pain - but better than it had been in the last week. She was so right. She (without even knowing it) did the single most essential thing she could for me. She took away my decision making. She stepped in and made them for me. As a mother, it is something that I would never ask someone to do but something that I so desperately needed. I am not sure that she even knows what she did for me or how amazing it was. She did it effortlessly, and decisively but without leaving me feeling unheard or unimportant. She left us feeling cared for and important enough to let my brain and heart rest. She knew I needed to be a mom first and not the nurse.
Andria shows iCARE values routinely without thinking about them. She is firm but not pushy. Assertive but not aggressive. She made us feel important and priority. We were so blessed to have had her as is every other patient that will be fortunate enough to be cared for by her.