Katherine Chipman, RN

When I came into the Washington Hospital Center emergency room for care and evaluation of burns to my right hand. I had tripped and heavily placed my hand onto the top of a 500º coal stove. Needless to say, serious burns to my palm and fingers. At check-in, I was directed back to the burn section through the very busy emergency room. Katherine came to give care. I immediately felt like I was in good hands. She asked all the right questions as she was undressing the hand: "How was I feeling? What was the pain level? This is what we’re going to do, etc." She was asking and listening and helped me relax and feel confident about what was going on, and I somehow knew I could count on her treatment.
As I watched her work on the hand, I felt she had an excellent facility with what she was doing. She said, “I have to trim away the dead skin and clean the wound. It’s going to be very painful. Do you want something for the pain?” I declined... Yikes! But I got through it. She was very focused on her work, working with great delicacy while being fearless and very deliberate. I remember thinking, through the pain, that it was impressive. As she worked on the hand, she was very communicative. “We’re doing this... we’re going to do this... This is how you’re going to take care of this, day by day... etc.” Her instructions to me- what I was to do in terms of cleaning and redressing the wound each day were both very complete and very reassuring. I’m looking at my raw hand, the first time I’ve ever had a burn of this nature, and yet I felt I could deal with what I had to do at home because of her confident and detailed instruction. She then made sure to schedule an appropriate follow-up appointment and gave me instructions for this visit. And the final bonus: she put together a care package of products I would need at home for daily care. Mepilex pads, gauze, tape, cloth tubing. If I didn’t have these items, I would have been at a loss at home, not knowing what to buy or how to access what I needed. The care package was a lifesaver. I was totally taken care of with great empathy, care, concern, compassion, and expertise.