May 2019
Jennifer
Westrate
,
BSN, RN, CPAN
PACU- West
UNC Rex Healthcare
Raleigh
,
NC
United States
Jennifer had the opportunity to care for a patient the other night towards the end of her shift who underwent an umbilical hernia repair. In planning for discharge, Jennifer discovered the patient spoke Swahili, as did his support system. Jennifer used the iPad to communicate with this patient during his time in PACU. Jennifer discovered that this patient had no way home and needed to stop by the CVS down the road to pick up his post-op prescriptions. Jennifer was worried about how this patient would communicate with the medical LYFT driver to obtain his prescriptions. Since it was the end of her shift, Jennifer discharged the patient and had the medical LYFT driver follow her to CVS so she could help communicate for the patient to obtain his prescription and provide some additional medication teaching. Jennifer went above and beyond to provide excellent and compassionate care to a patient who was new to the United States!