When Nurse Manager Cris Pritchard, RN, discovered a patient in the Cardiothoracic Surgery ICU was from Cambodia, he knew there would be language and cultural barriers. The immediate family members spoke little English and were now in an unfamiliar environment.
To help the family cope during a very stressful and challenging time, Cris assembled a multidisciplinary team from Interpreter Services, Risk Management, Patient Relations, Social Work and many others to assist the family. When the patient's health, unfortunately, began to decline, the family wanted to bring their daughter from Cambodia to say goodbye to her father.
Cris's prior experience as a Surgical ICU manager had prepared him for the challenges of helping families cope when their loved ones are suffering from a critical care illness or injury. But he was now tasked with assisting the family with international travel plans - an area unfamiliar to him.
Cris and the team wrote letters to congressional members from the state of Kansas and to the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia for assistance to help quickly bring the daughter to Kansas City, Kansas.
Despite working under tremendous pressure, Cris modeled what an exceptional nurse leader is and always provided compassion to the patient, family, and caregivers in the Cardiothoracic Surgery ICU.
The story:
Recently, we had a patient who was dying in our hospital. He had come to America from Cambodia to receive care for his heart. He had been to two hospitals closer to his daughter's house, and when they could not help him, they chose to come here.
The heart procedure was a success, but the patient suffered an anoxic brain injury at some point in his care. The family was told their father and husband would never be able to speak to them and would require a ventilator for survival. Their grief was palpable. Their focus became getting the youngest daughter here from Cambodia to say goodbye to their father.
Cris was the manager in the ICU where the family was told that their father/husband would not recover. He organized a team to support the healthcare team in caring for this patient. This would take a team of support that included Patient Relations, risk, medical-legal, Social Work, interpreters, and the healthcare team.
He involved Patient Relations quickly to help with immediate needs of shelter and food as they were from out of town. He empowered his unit coordinators to give meal tickets when the family requested them at any hour.
Cris also gave the family his cell number to contact him at any time. The daughter of this patient speaks English as a second language, so she was the person who most contacted Cris. As it turns out, the family reached out to Cris before anyone else when they needed support or information.
He reached out to the manager of Interpretive Services to get Cambodian interpreters in-person and organized their daily visits during the morning rounds so the family had access to up-to-date information from the healthcare team.
He made sure the interpreters were comfortable in the hospital setting and that they paused the team often to interpret what was being said.
He provided access to his office to any member of the healthcare team to meet in private with the family so that a blue phone for interpreting could be used in a quieter place.
Cris advocated getting the family lodging several times. This lodging was provided by social work and patient relations, but Cris saw the need and shared the need.
The family was very vocal in their grief and Cris helped his staff feel comfortable giving care while having the family at the bedside by going into the room and modeling how to support the family and still prioritize care. Cris was often found in the patient's room during their four-week stay.
The family had many specific customs that they wanted to be honored in their Buddhist faith. Cris reached out to our chaplaincy department for support for this. Cris explained the custom requests to his staff and encouraged them to support the family in these traditions. This involved getting colored sheets for the patient to lay on as they believed that "only dead people are on white sheets."
Cris also encouraged the staff to make sure that the patient could keep the $20 bills in each of his hands as the family felt this would give him money in the afterlife. Cris also talked with his staff about the family's desire to ritually bath him before he left this world.
Cris also reached out to our Decedent Affairs office as the family wanted to know their choices in the death of their loved one. He helped to get an in-person meeting for the family to be able to ask their questions.
Cris kept us all updated daily on what this patient needed. He often shared his compassion for what this family was going through, and how it stayed on his heart. He never once complained that he had to take their calls on evenings and weekends.