Elizabeth Perry, RN
April 2021
Elizabeth
Perry
,
RN
ECT
Maine Medical Center
Portland
,
ME
United States
This is just one example of the many, many times I witnessed Beth perform such miracles.
Beth and I met at the most challenging time in my personal life; when my husband was acutely depressed, suicidal, and failing treatment options. At the time he began ECT he had been out of work for over a month in a partial hospitalization program, and instead of improving his depression was worsening. None of what followed in 2020 was expected for us, from the start of this depressive episode to his suicidality to beginning ECT to the pandemic and remainder of 2020 that followed. Needless to say, 2020 did not even permit us to have a “typical” experience with ECT, in that there were no support groups or education available (in person, due to Covid). Beth not only educated us beyond what the physicians and ECT team provided, but she held our hand throughout the process. She is the face of the ECT program and makes sure to connect with patients and families right away, allowing us to feel that we have an advocate, a point person, and an ally in a very scary (but life-saving) process.
I was taking time off from work at the start of ECT, on an intermittent FML basis. When I began working again, Beth helped me coordinate my work schedule with ECT days, allowing me to drop off my husband at the start of my shift while another family picked him up after treatment. She checked in with both of us whenever possible when we arrived for treatment, regardless of the 10 other things she was juggling. I was that anxious family member who knows just enough to be extra needy, and she was available to answer my questions and hear my concerns by phone, on days when I couldn’t be physically present.
She checked in with me personally along the way, which is just one example of her going above and beyond the job requirements. I recall one day in particular when my husband was exceptionally anxious and irrational prior to treatment (which can apparently occur with ECT) and behaving in a way I had never witnessed. In addition to checking in with me about how I was feeling, if I felt safe and if this behavior was uncommon, she was also able to essentially talk my husband out of leaving treatment, enabling him to receive ECT and be much improved after. She helped problem solve how to prevent this anxiety and behavior in the future. That day she literally single-handedly enabled my husband to receive the treatment he needed. She recognized a new behavior, she anticipated a problem, she deescalated in a time and way I could not myself. In a moment of feeling scared and out of control, Beth took control and treated us as if we were her only patient/family.
This is just one example of the many, many times I witnessed Beth perform such miracles. The way ASU is set up, with curtains between stretchers, one hears and infrequently sees provider interactions with other patients, in the busy ASU/ECT treatment area. This is how I know Beth treats every patient/family like she treated us. I repeatedly heard her deescalate scared or agitated patients, calm family members/caregivers, and allow all in her care to feel as safe as possible.
On one of the rare days that Beth was off, a code grey occurred, unfortunately, with another patient next door to my husband and myself. My husband put it bluntly when he said, “this wouldn’t have happened if Beth was here.” What he meant was not that care wasn’t always excellent from the entire ECT team (truly, it was!) but that Beth knows each patient so well, that she would’ve intuitively known how to respond in a way that does not seem possible for someone else, much less someone covering.
Beth wears many hats, in addition to scheduling and doing education, as well as checking in on families and patients and returning phone calls, she is in the trenches with the other ASU/ECT nurses, placing IVs and pushing stretchers into the treatment area and fetching meds from pharmacy and taking vitals, and cleaning beds! She really does it all. My husband stated more than once, she is doing at least 2 people’s jobs. Her compassion and empathy and ability to be present is unthinkable to me, in a fast-pace health care environment. I aim to be like her, in my own bedside patient care.
I was taking time off from work at the start of ECT, on an intermittent FML basis. When I began working again, Beth helped me coordinate my work schedule with ECT days, allowing me to drop off my husband at the start of my shift while another family picked him up after treatment. She checked in with both of us whenever possible when we arrived for treatment, regardless of the 10 other things she was juggling. I was that anxious family member who knows just enough to be extra needy, and she was available to answer my questions and hear my concerns by phone, on days when I couldn’t be physically present.
She checked in with me personally along the way, which is just one example of her going above and beyond the job requirements. I recall one day in particular when my husband was exceptionally anxious and irrational prior to treatment (which can apparently occur with ECT) and behaving in a way I had never witnessed. In addition to checking in with me about how I was feeling, if I felt safe and if this behavior was uncommon, she was also able to essentially talk my husband out of leaving treatment, enabling him to receive ECT and be much improved after. She helped problem solve how to prevent this anxiety and behavior in the future. That day she literally single-handedly enabled my husband to receive the treatment he needed. She recognized a new behavior, she anticipated a problem, she deescalated in a time and way I could not myself. In a moment of feeling scared and out of control, Beth took control and treated us as if we were her only patient/family.
This is just one example of the many, many times I witnessed Beth perform such miracles. The way ASU is set up, with curtains between stretchers, one hears and infrequently sees provider interactions with other patients, in the busy ASU/ECT treatment area. This is how I know Beth treats every patient/family like she treated us. I repeatedly heard her deescalate scared or agitated patients, calm family members/caregivers, and allow all in her care to feel as safe as possible.
On one of the rare days that Beth was off, a code grey occurred, unfortunately, with another patient next door to my husband and myself. My husband put it bluntly when he said, “this wouldn’t have happened if Beth was here.” What he meant was not that care wasn’t always excellent from the entire ECT team (truly, it was!) but that Beth knows each patient so well, that she would’ve intuitively known how to respond in a way that does not seem possible for someone else, much less someone covering.
Beth wears many hats, in addition to scheduling and doing education, as well as checking in on families and patients and returning phone calls, she is in the trenches with the other ASU/ECT nurses, placing IVs and pushing stretchers into the treatment area and fetching meds from pharmacy and taking vitals, and cleaning beds! She really does it all. My husband stated more than once, she is doing at least 2 people’s jobs. Her compassion and empathy and ability to be present is unthinkable to me, in a fast-pace health care environment. I aim to be like her, in my own bedside patient care.