Matthew
Krabacher
,
BSN, RN II
Matt took care of our daughter 2 days in a row. He was fantastic with her. He made everything into a game and that was the first she took medicine without fighting. They had a secret sign for when she wanted her special snack, tater tots. She had a hard time dealing with her diagnosis and the days she had Matt was the first time I had seen her smile since being admitted.
Matt got to know each member of the family and talked about common interests. Myself and my husband are both soccer players and we spent a lot of time talking about soccer. He asked our daughter what she liked to do and tried to take an interest in her movies and games. He recognized she liked control and gave her as much as he could, and when it came time to do not fun things he found a way to make them fun for her by making it a game of some sort.
Matt explained to us every thing he was doing and why it was important. He also made things easy to understand for our daughter. Like when it was time for a dressing change, he broke it down in terms she could understand and why it needed done. He talked her through each step to tell her what she wanted to know without making her scared.
Matt made our daughter feel comfortable being her silly, goofy self. He took her jokes and made some back to her to make her day more fun. Their inside jokes and signals make me so happy that she is being so well taken care of at such a vulnerable time. Our family had shirts made for her and she wanted to make sure Matt had one too! We have another child in the CICU so we are not always with her, but the days she has Matt she seems to care less that we leave to go to our son. We feel comfortable being gone knowing she is in the best of hands
Matt let's our daughter be in control of as many things as possible. He will always ask if she wants to take a medicine now or in X amount of time. He recognizes making those decisions is important for her, and tries to include her. He is really flexible with her as well. If he comes in for vitals and we are in the middle of a game, he will come back if possible.