Brian Quinlan
October 2021
Brian
Quinlan
,
BSN, RN
2 Central ICU
Mayo Clinic Arizona
Phoenix
,
AZ
United States

 

 

 

The way he navigated the cultural divide was kind, sensitive, knowledgeable, and just clearly demonstrated that he was completely in tune with her medical needs.
My mother was in the Cardiac ICU for three days following open-heart surgery. She is tiny and frail at about 5 feet tall and 100 lbs. She speaks English but sometimes has difficulty being understood or sometimes asks culturally out-of-place questions. Brian was her nurse and the way he navigated the cultural divide was kind, sensitive, knowledgeable, and just clearly demonstrated that he was completely in tune with her medical needs and my parents’ concerns. He would patiently explain things to them in ways they could understand and, by the time I had met him, it was evident that he had engaged with them about not just my mom’s medical care but also about the other details of their lives and how the surgery affected them. Suffice it to say they loved him, and I could not ask for a better person to care for my mother in her moment of greatest need. Thank you, Brian, from all of us.