padon moore, BSN, RN, CCRN

We had an elderly, 91-year-old patient from assisted living. His eighty-year-old wife with what appears to be dementia drove herself to the hospital from their assisted living facility. The wife apparently got lost around the hospital but found the valet to park and the valet brought her to the unit via a wheelchair. When I came in at 7 pm, Padon approached me with her concerns that this elderly, demented wife would be driving in the dark back to the assisted living facility. The wife had to keep asking her husband how to get back to the facility from the hospital.
Padon then looked to see where the facility is located. The facility was close to her house and she normally walks to work so she didn't have to worry about a car. Padon was able to talk the wife into allowing her to drive her car to the assisted living facility to ensure her safe return.
What is even more impressive is that this patient and wife were not even her patients, she was caring for a different assignment.