Marie took care of a patient from whom the family was about to withdraw care. None of the family was at the bedside, as they said it was too difficult for them to see him like that. He was intubated, unresponsive on minimal sedation, and on pressors. The patient's dad had been calling throughout the day to check on his son. As Marie was about to hang up the phone with the dad for the last time, she asked if he would like for her to patch the phone call into the room so that she could hold up the phone to his son's ear so that he could say goodbye. The dad thanked Marie and the doctor for taking care of his son. Marie put the phone up to the patient's ear and allowed his dad to tell him goodbye. Before the team removed life support, Marie paged the chaplain to come to the bedside to pray with and over the patient. The doctor, RT, chaplain, and Marie all were there to say a prayer. She, the doctor and the RT stayed with him and held his hand while he died.
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Marie took care of a Cystic Fibrosis patient who was 22 years old. The patient was on a considerable amount of oxygen, and approaching needing intubation. Her mom was at the bedside and was very anxious. The patient had never been admitted to the ICU so Marie had to explain the differences between the ICU and the floor. She explained all the monitoring equipment and what the plan of care was. As the day progressed, the patient became increasingly tachycardic and hypoxic, requiring BiPap. Marie could see the patient's mother struggling and tearing up. Marie looked at her and she motioned that she wanted to talk outside the room. With tears in her eyes, the mother asked what all of this meant and if her daughter needed intubation, and how long she might be intubated. Marie continued to explain all the measures the medical team were taking to prevent that. Before the mother went back into the room, Marie told her that if she needed to "vent" again, that she just had to give her a look or signal and Marie would know what that meant. A little later, the doctors wanted Marie to take the patient to IR to remove her port, as they thought it was infected. The mother and patient were both nervous, however they both said they were glad that Marie would be the one going with her to IR. Marie asked if the mother could walk down with the patient and her, to IR and the mother accompanied them to the procedural unit. The mother told Marie, "When you lay your head down at night, I want you to know that you are blessed and that I am thankful you took care of my daughter today." The next day, when Marie ran into the mother in passing in the MICU and the mother thankfully gave her a big hug.
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Marie has a lot of compassion and that is clearly reflected in her daily care. She definitely makes a significant and positive impact on patient experiences. Marie is very cognizant of her patients and patient family members' struggle to cope and her care definitely shows that.