Charnell Steward
March 2021
Charnell
Steward
,
RN
Mother Baby Unit (MBU)
Texas Children's Hospital
Houston
,
TX
United States
After Charnell was done helping my wife, she (without prompting) said, “Let me go warm this up so you have a nice hot meal after all the work you just put in!” My wife was literally in tears by that small gesture of acknowledgment and understanding.
My wife and I welcomed baby boy twins into the world. Dr. S insisted on TCH for our delivery in large part due to the wonderful nursing care he knew we would need and receive. Boy was he right! From start to finish the nursing care was excellent capped off by our time on the 12th floor after delivery. Charnell was our night nurse and dealing with twins is no easy task. She went above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable and explained everything she was doing with our two newborns.
Her attitude and demeanor were absolutely on point. She had an effervescent personality that oozed caring and compassion along with great attention to detail. She explained the “roadmap to discharge” and helped gain comfort with each step in the process starting with their feeding, my wife’s breastfeeding (she was especially patient and attentive for this), their circumcisions, antibiotic administration, car seat test, pooping, peeing, bilirubin test and the list goes on. That first night was a blur for us, but I never felt that I didn’t know what was going on or that I didn’t have a great point of contact.
There was one day in particular, which my wife’s food tray came in the room while she was trying to breastfeed. Even though Charnell was helping, it took a long while. Meanwhile, the food was just sitting there getting colder by the minute. After she was done helping my wife, she (without prompting) said, “Let me go warm this up so you have a nice hot meal after all the work you just put in!” My wife was literally in tears by that small gesture of acknowledgment and understanding. You can’t teach that!
As someone who has worked in healthcare right next door in the med center and now at a community hospital, I feel that I know good nursing care when I experience it. After learning about your program, I know Charnell is a true DAISY Nurse.
***
I am a first-time mom. Because I previously had surgery on my uterus, it was safer to have a c-section delivery. I was aware that there would be issues with bowel movement after surgery, but I was not sure about how to handle it along with managing pain and bloating related to surgery. I was admitted to the Mom Baby Unit. During my stay all the nurses were nice. A nurse practitioner from the surgeon’s team came in and mentioned taking off the dressing over the incision. Even though she mentioned it I was unsure how taking the bandage off would occur, but I did understand that a team would review my incision the next day. I was also still unsure about how to handle making sure I had a bowel movement, how to successfully breastfeed, and how to continue to manage pain related to surgery after being discharged.
Charnell was the evening nurse assigned to me on my 2nd night’s stay. She immediately asked me about gas and bowel movements. When I informed her I had not had any success with either and that the daytime nurse told me stool softeners were not prescribed, Charnell took action. Charnell also explained that I would be the person to take the bandage off. Using the technique the nurse practitioner suggested, Charnell helped me enter the shower and took the mobile shower spout, and proceeded to wet the bandage for removal. It was very painful, but she took her time to remove the bandage.
Once that was complete she helped me get dressed and helped me get back into the bed. She also told me about a special way to get my bowels moving and gas flowing. Not only did she tell me about it, but she also proceeded to get what I needed and told me how to take the prune juice and medication mix. Within 12 hours the mix worked perfectly. Also during the early/late hours of her overnight shift, I called about having additional pain that did not seem to go away with the medication I’d taken. She went out of her way to get me an appropriate pain relief product.
For Charnell to take time to help get me pain relief shows how dedicated she is to her career as a nurse. This is not a story about what Charnell did for me - because she was doing her job. This is a story about How she helped me and How she did not standby idly after mentioning things that may help me. Charnell went above and beyond and showed me how a nurse should operate when caring for patients.
Her attitude and demeanor were absolutely on point. She had an effervescent personality that oozed caring and compassion along with great attention to detail. She explained the “roadmap to discharge” and helped gain comfort with each step in the process starting with their feeding, my wife’s breastfeeding (she was especially patient and attentive for this), their circumcisions, antibiotic administration, car seat test, pooping, peeing, bilirubin test and the list goes on. That first night was a blur for us, but I never felt that I didn’t know what was going on or that I didn’t have a great point of contact.
There was one day in particular, which my wife’s food tray came in the room while she was trying to breastfeed. Even though Charnell was helping, it took a long while. Meanwhile, the food was just sitting there getting colder by the minute. After she was done helping my wife, she (without prompting) said, “Let me go warm this up so you have a nice hot meal after all the work you just put in!” My wife was literally in tears by that small gesture of acknowledgment and understanding. You can’t teach that!
As someone who has worked in healthcare right next door in the med center and now at a community hospital, I feel that I know good nursing care when I experience it. After learning about your program, I know Charnell is a true DAISY Nurse.
***
I am a first-time mom. Because I previously had surgery on my uterus, it was safer to have a c-section delivery. I was aware that there would be issues with bowel movement after surgery, but I was not sure about how to handle it along with managing pain and bloating related to surgery. I was admitted to the Mom Baby Unit. During my stay all the nurses were nice. A nurse practitioner from the surgeon’s team came in and mentioned taking off the dressing over the incision. Even though she mentioned it I was unsure how taking the bandage off would occur, but I did understand that a team would review my incision the next day. I was also still unsure about how to handle making sure I had a bowel movement, how to successfully breastfeed, and how to continue to manage pain related to surgery after being discharged.
Charnell was the evening nurse assigned to me on my 2nd night’s stay. She immediately asked me about gas and bowel movements. When I informed her I had not had any success with either and that the daytime nurse told me stool softeners were not prescribed, Charnell took action. Charnell also explained that I would be the person to take the bandage off. Using the technique the nurse practitioner suggested, Charnell helped me enter the shower and took the mobile shower spout, and proceeded to wet the bandage for removal. It was very painful, but she took her time to remove the bandage.
Once that was complete she helped me get dressed and helped me get back into the bed. She also told me about a special way to get my bowels moving and gas flowing. Not only did she tell me about it, but she also proceeded to get what I needed and told me how to take the prune juice and medication mix. Within 12 hours the mix worked perfectly. Also during the early/late hours of her overnight shift, I called about having additional pain that did not seem to go away with the medication I’d taken. She went out of her way to get me an appropriate pain relief product.
For Charnell to take time to help get me pain relief shows how dedicated she is to her career as a nurse. This is not a story about what Charnell did for me - because she was doing her job. This is a story about How she helped me and How she did not standby idly after mentioning things that may help me. Charnell went above and beyond and showed me how a nurse should operate when caring for patients.