Monica Seivert
June 2021
Monica
Seivert
,
RN
5 Meijer Heart Center
Spectrum Health Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center
Grand Rapids
,
MI
United States
Within the first of the two shifts she had him as her patient, I could tell Monica epitomized everything a Nurse should be!
Only two shifts out of the 24 days in the ICU did my father-in-law have Monica Seivert as his Nurse. Because it was during the coronavirus pandemic, we still do not know what she even looks like. But, a month later I can still hear her voice in my mind as over the phone we talked about him, his health, and how our family was doing as he battled COVID.
While Monica’s coworkers or patients can see her in person, I like to picture her looking like our "angel of blessing" amid such a difficult situation. Please do not misunderstand me, there were many other amazing Nurses and other healthcare providers who cared for my father-in-law, and they will not be forgotten for their courage and dedication - especially during the uncertain early days of the local outbreak of this pandemic. Within the first of the two shifts she had him as her patient, I could tell Monica epitomized everything a Nurse should be! So did R's wife, M.
How does a Nurse make such an impression on the family members she has never even met in person? Forgive me if I organize my thoughts around Spectrum's core values: Compassion, Courage, Curiosity, and Collaboration. During the time dad was hospitalized, I was still an employee of Spectrum (before the economic fallout from COVID necessitating the elimination of my work position the week after he died). So, those Spectrum values are still fresh on my mind, as is the foundation and core of nursing as a profession-Care.
Simultaneously to helping our family through this difficult experience, besides working at Spectrum in the informatics department, I also was completing two doctoral-level nursing courses. As the family "medical person" (a Nurse practitioner for 24 years), it was primarily me and his wife who made the 2-4 calls per day to get "reports" from the Nurses or doctors and then communicated his status to the rest of the immediate family. So what makes a Nurse so unique - besides having so many medical and technical skills?
Care: Care is what we felt from our first interactions with Monica. She spoke to his wife and I as individuals, tailoring her message to the information and education needs and abilities of each of us. Monica exhibited more than just care for R and his physical condition, she made an effort to understand him as a person (when he was still able to breathe on his own and talk). She also focused her nursing on us as his family, for which I am grateful. Monica asked about how we were doing, expressed empathy and sympathy, and truly provided that "therapeutic relationship" that we are taught in nursing school, but don't often see embodied in today's busy acute care settings. I have spent over 6 months of my own life hospitalized (mostly due to pregnancy issues) and have only experienced a couple of Nurses who exhibited that same level of a therapeutic relationship. To still provide that remotely over the phone with a patient's family is an amazing accomplishment for Monica!
Compassion: It was evident during my first conversation with Monica that she was a gem of a Nurse. She truly felt compassion for both R and what the family was experiencing. Many knew the burden M was bearing with both her husband and brother in the ICU with COVID. And in the midst, it was evident that Monica showed such extraordinary compassion to her during their conversations over those few days. M's brother died the day before R was intubated. Monica reached out to both M and me with calls a couple of times after that - even when R was not her patient that day. She just wanted to make sure we knew she cared and if there was anything she could help to explain to us while we were waiting for R's Nurse to return calls (since they were in the room with him at that point). She also wrote some very healing words to us after R's death, telling us about how much he appreciated his family and what they had talked about in their brief times together in the ICU.
Curiosity: Monica displayed curiosity by inquiring what I needed to know to understand all the terminology and processes in the ICU (despite my nursing background). She met me where I was and brought me to a higher level of understanding of physiology and processes of typical ARDS and what they were just learning about how COVID differed. She understood that I would be the one to communicate it more broadly to the family and that by ensuring I could understand what lay ahead, she would be helping others in the family. She was an intelligent, experienced Nurse who helped us feel secure in the care, yet recognizing that the whole world was dealing with a whole slew of unknowns around this new disease.
Courage: Monica gave of herself to make sure we knew that she was there "fighting with us" for his health and she would do anything needed to ensure he had the best possible care. She was aggressive in her nursing interventions - recognizing how important everything she did was to giving him a better chance at survival (definitely not just passive monitoring!). She didn't wait to just encourage him to use his incentive spirometer and acapella lung therapy. She proactively worked with him regularly to ensure that he used it and worked aggressively on his positioning. Even before his intubation, she encouraged and helped position him as close to pRe position as possible to achieve potential benefits. Over the two days in early April, she provided her intensive and aggressive nursing care, he significantly improved. She no doubt spoke words of courage to him to help him stay motivated to eat when he did not feel like it and it was such a struggle.
Collaboration: What struck me the most was the way she advocated for his need at that point of initial mild improvement in early April to remain still for "one more day" in the ICU level of care before possible transition to lower levels of care. With her expert level of nursing skills, she knew that while it might look like he was improving, without continued close aggressive nursing care, he might more easily worsen and even require intubation. She did not want him graduated from the ICU only to require an urgent intubation shortly thereafter. She was determined she would do all she could to advocate for more stability before moving down levels of care (and thankfully there was still room in the ICU at that point).
While I never could see her interaction with the physicians, no doubt she is a well-respected Nurse by her colleagues. She was right, he needed the care, and unfortunately even in the ICU began to deteriorate over the next day or so. It is hard to put into words the intangibles that made us value and appreciate Monica as a Nurse in a way that so exceeded all of the other wonderful Nurses who cared for R. Perhaps the only word I can summarize it is CARE. We felt that she truly cared - not because it was her job to care, but because she truly did. I am grateful that during the few days before his intubation and subsequent death 13 days later, that while we could only show our love to him via a 5-10 minute iPad conversation each day, she could show love and care to him in person. Since over a couple of phone calls to us she showed so much care and love, I can only imagine how healing that must have been for R during those scary hours and days in the ICU. Thank you, Monica. May God bless you and all the others who have given so much for our families during this pandemic.
While Monica’s coworkers or patients can see her in person, I like to picture her looking like our "angel of blessing" amid such a difficult situation. Please do not misunderstand me, there were many other amazing Nurses and other healthcare providers who cared for my father-in-law, and they will not be forgotten for their courage and dedication - especially during the uncertain early days of the local outbreak of this pandemic. Within the first of the two shifts she had him as her patient, I could tell Monica epitomized everything a Nurse should be! So did R's wife, M.
How does a Nurse make such an impression on the family members she has never even met in person? Forgive me if I organize my thoughts around Spectrum's core values: Compassion, Courage, Curiosity, and Collaboration. During the time dad was hospitalized, I was still an employee of Spectrum (before the economic fallout from COVID necessitating the elimination of my work position the week after he died). So, those Spectrum values are still fresh on my mind, as is the foundation and core of nursing as a profession-Care.
Simultaneously to helping our family through this difficult experience, besides working at Spectrum in the informatics department, I also was completing two doctoral-level nursing courses. As the family "medical person" (a Nurse practitioner for 24 years), it was primarily me and his wife who made the 2-4 calls per day to get "reports" from the Nurses or doctors and then communicated his status to the rest of the immediate family. So what makes a Nurse so unique - besides having so many medical and technical skills?
Care: Care is what we felt from our first interactions with Monica. She spoke to his wife and I as individuals, tailoring her message to the information and education needs and abilities of each of us. Monica exhibited more than just care for R and his physical condition, she made an effort to understand him as a person (when he was still able to breathe on his own and talk). She also focused her nursing on us as his family, for which I am grateful. Monica asked about how we were doing, expressed empathy and sympathy, and truly provided that "therapeutic relationship" that we are taught in nursing school, but don't often see embodied in today's busy acute care settings. I have spent over 6 months of my own life hospitalized (mostly due to pregnancy issues) and have only experienced a couple of Nurses who exhibited that same level of a therapeutic relationship. To still provide that remotely over the phone with a patient's family is an amazing accomplishment for Monica!
Compassion: It was evident during my first conversation with Monica that she was a gem of a Nurse. She truly felt compassion for both R and what the family was experiencing. Many knew the burden M was bearing with both her husband and brother in the ICU with COVID. And in the midst, it was evident that Monica showed such extraordinary compassion to her during their conversations over those few days. M's brother died the day before R was intubated. Monica reached out to both M and me with calls a couple of times after that - even when R was not her patient that day. She just wanted to make sure we knew she cared and if there was anything she could help to explain to us while we were waiting for R's Nurse to return calls (since they were in the room with him at that point). She also wrote some very healing words to us after R's death, telling us about how much he appreciated his family and what they had talked about in their brief times together in the ICU.
Curiosity: Monica displayed curiosity by inquiring what I needed to know to understand all the terminology and processes in the ICU (despite my nursing background). She met me where I was and brought me to a higher level of understanding of physiology and processes of typical ARDS and what they were just learning about how COVID differed. She understood that I would be the one to communicate it more broadly to the family and that by ensuring I could understand what lay ahead, she would be helping others in the family. She was an intelligent, experienced Nurse who helped us feel secure in the care, yet recognizing that the whole world was dealing with a whole slew of unknowns around this new disease.
Courage: Monica gave of herself to make sure we knew that she was there "fighting with us" for his health and she would do anything needed to ensure he had the best possible care. She was aggressive in her nursing interventions - recognizing how important everything she did was to giving him a better chance at survival (definitely not just passive monitoring!). She didn't wait to just encourage him to use his incentive spirometer and acapella lung therapy. She proactively worked with him regularly to ensure that he used it and worked aggressively on his positioning. Even before his intubation, she encouraged and helped position him as close to pRe position as possible to achieve potential benefits. Over the two days in early April, she provided her intensive and aggressive nursing care, he significantly improved. She no doubt spoke words of courage to him to help him stay motivated to eat when he did not feel like it and it was such a struggle.
Collaboration: What struck me the most was the way she advocated for his need at that point of initial mild improvement in early April to remain still for "one more day" in the ICU level of care before possible transition to lower levels of care. With her expert level of nursing skills, she knew that while it might look like he was improving, without continued close aggressive nursing care, he might more easily worsen and even require intubation. She did not want him graduated from the ICU only to require an urgent intubation shortly thereafter. She was determined she would do all she could to advocate for more stability before moving down levels of care (and thankfully there was still room in the ICU at that point).
While I never could see her interaction with the physicians, no doubt she is a well-respected Nurse by her colleagues. She was right, he needed the care, and unfortunately even in the ICU began to deteriorate over the next day or so. It is hard to put into words the intangibles that made us value and appreciate Monica as a Nurse in a way that so exceeded all of the other wonderful Nurses who cared for R. Perhaps the only word I can summarize it is CARE. We felt that she truly cared - not because it was her job to care, but because she truly did. I am grateful that during the few days before his intubation and subsequent death 13 days later, that while we could only show our love to him via a 5-10 minute iPad conversation each day, she could show love and care to him in person. Since over a couple of phone calls to us she showed so much care and love, I can only imagine how healing that must have been for R during those scary hours and days in the ICU. Thank you, Monica. May God bless you and all the others who have given so much for our families during this pandemic.