Pediatric and PICU Units at Nebraska Medicine
August 2023
Pediatric and PICU Units
at Nebraska Medicine
Pediatric and PICU Units
Nebraska Medicine
Omaha
,
NE
United States
Valerie Meyer, RN and Tara Bornemeier, RN were involved in supporting these children. Our nurses and Child Life Specialists and Family Development team, along with our Pediatric and PICU teams provide exceptional care to not only our patients, but to those children of dying parents or family members.
I just wanted to pass on a quick note of appreciation for the Peds & PICU lead nurses who were covering the day shift on Saturday. They made a huge Impact on our staff and a patient/family during a very difficult time for us all.
We had a very sick ECMO patient with 3 young daughters (ages 11, 8, and 5) who was nearing end-of-life. Due to it being a holiday, Child Life, unfortunately, was not available. I reached out to the PICU lead (Valerie Meyer) for some resources, and she came to CVICU with the Peds Lead (Tara Bornemeier) to help us out. They both went above and beyond to help support the patient, her family and children, and myself and the CVICIJ staff during a very sad and difficult time. They spent almost 2 hours of their time helping us with memory-making and facilitating family support. They helped foster the very difficult conversation of telling the daughters their mom was passing away, brought blankets and stuffed animals for the children, helped us make canvas handprints involving the mom and daughters for memory-making, and provided us with supplies to make vials with printouts of mom's heartbeat as mementos, and helped us make a cast mold of mom's hand to have as a memory. They both went above and beyond what I expected, and I am so grateful for their assistance today. I truly don't think we could have made their last moments together as a family so special without their assistance. I just want to make sure they know how appreciative we all are and that they are recognized for their amazing work! It was a very tough day, but they were instrumental in making it a meaningful experience. Thank you!
We had a very sick ECMO patient with 3 young daughters (ages 11, 8, and 5) who was nearing end-of-life. Due to it being a holiday, Child Life, unfortunately, was not available. I reached out to the PICU lead (Valerie Meyer) for some resources, and she came to CVICU with the Peds Lead (Tara Bornemeier) to help us out. They both went above and beyond to help support the patient, her family and children, and myself and the CVICIJ staff during a very sad and difficult time. They spent almost 2 hours of their time helping us with memory-making and facilitating family support. They helped foster the very difficult conversation of telling the daughters their mom was passing away, brought blankets and stuffed animals for the children, helped us make canvas handprints involving the mom and daughters for memory-making, and provided us with supplies to make vials with printouts of mom's heartbeat as mementos, and helped us make a cast mold of mom's hand to have as a memory. They both went above and beyond what I expected, and I am so grateful for their assistance today. I truly don't think we could have made their last moments together as a family so special without their assistance. I just want to make sure they know how appreciative we all are and that they are recognized for their amazing work! It was a very tough day, but they were instrumental in making it a meaningful experience. Thank you!