Marie Mateo
July 2021
Marie
Mateo
,
BSN, RN
F6/6 - GYN, Urology & Plastics
UW Health
Madison
United States
Marie was special to start with and had an extra dose of kindness and good humor available. She was thoughtful about her work.
Marie was amazing, compassionate, and thoughtful. Here’s my background: I had surgery that lasted 7+ hours. I was really beaten up and tired. I spent 2 days on F6/4, then moved to F6/6. (I believe that was the timing—I may be off due to the pain meds.) Marie was special to start with and had an extra dose of kindness and good humor available. She was thoughtful about her work. I had been labeled a fall risk immediately after surgery and no one had changed it. She commented that I was moving fine and had that label removed, making it easier for me to regain my independence. Even small things, like night rounding, showed that she puts her patients first. She worked with the NA so that I was woken up once instead of twice for each time they needed to check on me. That didn’t happen with every night shift. I had some other issues. I had a very loud neighbor (screaming “Nurse!” rather than using the call button, blasting her TV all night, etc.) One night, I had less than 4 hours of sleep. I was hoping to leave the hospital the next day. When the doctors wanted me to stay another night, I was pretty broken down, between the dashed hopes, the stress of the surgery, and the lack of quality sleep. I was on the phone with the doctor, trying to negotiate a way to safely go home while near tears. Marie stayed in the room during the call, listening to my complaints (including that I didn’t like the water). She dropped me a note saying she would find me a different room. She also found a different water source with water that I believed tasted better. She brought my belongings down to the new room and got me set up. As soon as she was aware that I was having issues, she did all she could to help fix them, which meant the world to me in my broken-down state. That night, I finally got some sleep, which I am sure benefitted my recovery. I was getting different fluids all night. She’d come in at 11, get everything set up and say, “This runs for three hours, I’ll be back at 2.” She often was back right before the bag would run out, so I didn’t even have to call her. She’d slip in, put in the new bag, take vitals, and tell me again when she’d be back. I could sleep without worrying about being woken up. In addition to all of this, Marie was friendly and caring, which isn’t necessarily going above and beyond, but is certainly a wonderful trait to have in a nurse! She was a wonderful nurse. I would be thrilled to cross paths in public and thank her again personally. You would be fortunate to have a ward full of nurses like Marie Mateo.