Ariadna Elmudesi
February 2021
Ariadna
Elmudesi
,
RN
6 North
North Florida Regional Medical Center
Ari went and decorated her room with the posters that the 6-North team had created and shared the photo of the team with her and her family.
COVID-19 is a virus that unfortunately has had a great impact on communities both nationally, and even locally. Our workforce is a reflection of our communities, and so, therefore, COVID-19 has also had an impact on the healthcare profession both nationally and locally as well.
The unknowns of the disease. The risks have to be weighed and measured against the rewards. The sacrifices taken to protect families but still serve the community takes a toll on a pandemic response nurse.
You all began to mask up and shield your faces. With the layers of PPE, lack of touch, encouragement of distance- there may be a tendency to lose that humanistic approach so needed for our patients. As our COVID-19 patients develop the courage to go through the realization of the unknowns of the disease, our patients also make sacrifices for their wellbeing to protect their family, always separating themselves from their own loved ones to protect them.
During this, many nurses on our pandemic response team found ways through the barriers to establish personal meaningful connections to their patients and their families. From facilitating virtual visitation for your patients to ice cream parties when isolation precautions were lifted. You looked to celebrate milestones in your patient's lives.....From birthdays to 50th wedding anniversaries. You did anything to regain the humanistic approach of compassion for your patients during this difficult time.
You all should be proud that the care you are providing not only facilitates positive clinical outcomes but the personal connections, that you have made and will continue to make, will never be forgotten. I do, however, want to highlight one nurse in particular who looked outward, even beyond her normal patient's caregiving, outside of our hospital and to her community.
Ari transitioned into practice with the StaRN program last January, just as COVID was starting to impact the world. Ari found a news article of a fellow pandemic response nurse in the Ocala area that unfortunately contracted the very virus she was helping others heal from. This nurse was hospitalized at an Ocala area Intensive Care Unit, and the prognosis was not hopeful for her recovery. Armed with this information, like a call to battle, Ari coordinated her local pandemic response team on 6-North to take a group photo holding inspirational signs that the team had made to show their love and support for this fellow nurse and her family. The goal for Ari was to have this nurse know that she is loved and that she was inspiring others in her efforts to care and serve on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Later, Ari was invited to actually visit this patient in her ICU room. Ari went and decorated her room with the posters that the 6-North team had created and shared the photo of the team with her and her family. This Ocala nurse could not talk because she was intubated, but Ari states, "She saw me." Tears welled in her eyes as Ari shared with her that a team of her peers at North Florida was thinking of her. You could tell it meant something to her.
Unfortunately, she did pass away from COVID-19 a couple of weeks later. But knowing that Ari and the 6-North Pandemic response team was able to provide a thank you for this nurse's service and that her story of selflessness was an inspiration to others, is something that in her last moments of life, clearly meant something to this patient and her family.
Our HCA mission is above all else we are committed to the care and improvement of human life. All of our Pandemic Response nurses put our mission on display each and every day. But this mission statement does not qualify that the human life has to be your patient. Ari- what you did in our fellow nurses last days is the epitome of Above All Else. You made the signs, gathered the team, went to her room, decorated it, looked in her eyes and you showed her that you and your team cared. Then to show not only her but her family that she was loved is a gift you have left as part of her memory for her family forever.
Ari what you did is extraordinary and definitely exemplifies the DAISY Award. Congratulations.
The unknowns of the disease. The risks have to be weighed and measured against the rewards. The sacrifices taken to protect families but still serve the community takes a toll on a pandemic response nurse.
You all began to mask up and shield your faces. With the layers of PPE, lack of touch, encouragement of distance- there may be a tendency to lose that humanistic approach so needed for our patients. As our COVID-19 patients develop the courage to go through the realization of the unknowns of the disease, our patients also make sacrifices for their wellbeing to protect their family, always separating themselves from their own loved ones to protect them.
During this, many nurses on our pandemic response team found ways through the barriers to establish personal meaningful connections to their patients and their families. From facilitating virtual visitation for your patients to ice cream parties when isolation precautions were lifted. You looked to celebrate milestones in your patient's lives.....From birthdays to 50th wedding anniversaries. You did anything to regain the humanistic approach of compassion for your patients during this difficult time.
You all should be proud that the care you are providing not only facilitates positive clinical outcomes but the personal connections, that you have made and will continue to make, will never be forgotten. I do, however, want to highlight one nurse in particular who looked outward, even beyond her normal patient's caregiving, outside of our hospital and to her community.
Ari transitioned into practice with the StaRN program last January, just as COVID was starting to impact the world. Ari found a news article of a fellow pandemic response nurse in the Ocala area that unfortunately contracted the very virus she was helping others heal from. This nurse was hospitalized at an Ocala area Intensive Care Unit, and the prognosis was not hopeful for her recovery. Armed with this information, like a call to battle, Ari coordinated her local pandemic response team on 6-North to take a group photo holding inspirational signs that the team had made to show their love and support for this fellow nurse and her family. The goal for Ari was to have this nurse know that she is loved and that she was inspiring others in her efforts to care and serve on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Later, Ari was invited to actually visit this patient in her ICU room. Ari went and decorated her room with the posters that the 6-North team had created and shared the photo of the team with her and her family. This Ocala nurse could not talk because she was intubated, but Ari states, "She saw me." Tears welled in her eyes as Ari shared with her that a team of her peers at North Florida was thinking of her. You could tell it meant something to her.
Unfortunately, she did pass away from COVID-19 a couple of weeks later. But knowing that Ari and the 6-North Pandemic response team was able to provide a thank you for this nurse's service and that her story of selflessness was an inspiration to others, is something that in her last moments of life, clearly meant something to this patient and her family.
Our HCA mission is above all else we are committed to the care and improvement of human life. All of our Pandemic Response nurses put our mission on display each and every day. But this mission statement does not qualify that the human life has to be your patient. Ari- what you did in our fellow nurses last days is the epitome of Above All Else. You made the signs, gathered the team, went to her room, decorated it, looked in her eyes and you showed her that you and your team cared. Then to show not only her but her family that she was loved is a gift you have left as part of her memory for her family forever.
Ari what you did is extraordinary and definitely exemplifies the DAISY Award. Congratulations.