Caitlin M Lee, BSN, RN, CCRN

Caitlin Lee took over care for a patient that has been in the hospital for nearly 2 weeks. This patient speaks an uncommon language, and a very rare dialect, and we did not have the available interpretation service. The virtual interpretation had a close match, but not quite the same language. The patient needed a relatively simple procedure, but was refusing and seemed very scared. Caitlin spent a lot of time building trust with the patient and realized that the patient felt that no one was taking the time to communicate with her and just coming in doing things, without explaining what they were doing. She felt very vulnerable and Caitlin went out of her way to make the patient feel more comfortable and make her feel like a priority. When Caitlin managed to get the patient's family to help interpret with the virtual interpreter, they realized that the interpretation was for a very different, more serious procedure, which explained the patient's fear earlier. Caitlin spent a long time advocating for her patient to be able to feel more comfortable and understood throughout her care.