May 2022
Diedre
Joyner
,
RN
Duke University Hospital
Durham
,
NC
United States
Diedre found chocolate ice cream and chocolate pudding when I explained that these were favorites.
My 86-year-old father was admitted with a stroke. He also has dementia. I am a geriatrician. My father had waited over 18 hours in the ED for a bed in the middle of a COVID surge. He was very delirious and I was exhausted. Diedre was energetic and positive from the start. She got right to work getting him comfortable in the room. She shared with me her empathy for my situation as a caregiver through her own experience with her grandmother who had Alzheimer's disease. She valued my father and was glad to call him Reverend when I explained that was a preferred title and way of being addressed. She asked me for and listened to things that I could share that would enhance her ability to provide patient-centered care. She found chocolate ice cream and chocolate pudding when I explained that these were favorites. She facilitated getting him up in a chair when I suggested that might help him be less agitated. She crushed meds, fed my dad, reached out for a sitter when that was needed, and kept encouraging me but also understanding when I said I had to leave and had reached my limit. She kept working, thinking, and communicating in ways that felt very supportive.