Defining empathy is to put oneself in another person's shoes. I believe we have such a special group of nurses who demonstrate this type of empathy on a daily basis and I want to discuss a recent situation that I witnessed in the NICU. We were caring for a patient who was thirteen years old, whose baby was brought to the NICU for poor feeding and a maternal fever. Most 13-year olds are in the seventh or eighth grade, just trying to fit in with others. Yet this mom had a sick infant and she needed a lot of knowledge to understand how to care for her little one. Melinda prepared this mother for her infant's discharge, demonstrating the ultimate empathy by taking several hours to ensure that she knew how to care for her baby. She also taught the grandmother of the baby, who was Spanish speaking and understood English at a low healthcare literacy level. She had the mother return demonstrate everything from taking a temperature, to feeding and burping the baby.
I want to believe that this nurse remembered what it was like to be a thirteen-year-old. It is quite consuming and draining to do this type of discharge, so I just want to thank Melinda for her empathy, as well as all the nurses in this unit that through these types of routines- make special family connections.