Our son had tethered cord surgery. Megan was his PICU nurse the first two days he was in the PICU. He has autism and is non-verbal. It was a challenge to keep him calm and comfortable while monitoring his health. Megan was excellent with him. She was pro-active in her care to make sure he maintained the correct vitals. She worked with us and listened to our concerns. She kept us aware of the treatment plan and addressed all of our questions professionally. She had great intuition and addressed him with the same care and respect that she would have with a verbal patient.
Often when you have a child with ASD that is non-verbal health care professionals assume they do not understand what is going on and do not bother talking to the child. Megan did not do that. She talked to him like she would any other patient and it reduced his anxiety.
One night he became very upset and was trying to pull the IV from his foot. Instead of assuming this was bad behavior, Megan problem solved and determined the IV had blown in his foot and he was pain. We were able to get a new IV started and he calmed down.
Megan meets all the criteria that a mother would want in a nurse for any child. She is smart, patient, considerate, compassionate, intuitive, and is a great problem solver.