I came in for unscheduled, last-minute surgery r/t development of cellulitis in an area that had recently had surgery. I was in pain, felt generally unwell, and my husband and I were quite nervous; the surgical site was inflamed and very, very swollen and discolored. Surgery is not unfamiliar to me as I have breast cancer, and the most recent surgery was 1 of a series of reconstructive surgeries post bilateral mastectomy. However, this visit was significantly different since the surgery had just been scheduled THAT MORNING as a result of the emergent infection.
In pre-op, I was fortunate to have RN Penny take charge of my care. She was familiar with my case, having met me during another surgery r/t cancer, and made a point of taking my case. I had already gone through the first step of admission, which was quite unnerving since I had been unable to complete any of the normal pre-op preparations (shower, etc), and things just felt "off". I was being squeezed into an already full day of surgeries, and we ended up waiting quite a while until someone came over to get the actual prep done for the surgery (blood draw, IV set up, etc). Everyone seemed to be assigned to someone else - someone who was probably scheduled; and while my husband and I completely understood the situation, it was unnerving because I was feeling progressively worse, with increasing pain, and more and more stressed. After quite a wait, a young unfamiliar RN came over and started to go through the standard questions. She didn't appear to be aware that we were any different from any of the other scheduled surgeries - which was fine, but having to go through the explanation all over again was beginning to get old and added to our (my husband and my) stress levels. At this point, without prompting, Penny came over and told the nurse that she would be taking care of me and that she was already familiar with the case. This made my husband and I feel so much better. We had met her on an earlier admission and enjoyed her greatly at that time. She had obviously reviewed my records, remembered me, and knew why I was there and what was going on. Her humor helped lighten the mood while her professionalism and efficiency helped us feel more confident. She remembered specific things about my case (whether from checking the EMR, talking to the surgeon, or just good memory) which helped both my husband and I feel totally safe for the first time that day.
That isn't to say that everyone else we encountered previously wasn't very professional and good at what they did, not at all! Everyone we encountered was capable and professional, but when you're stressed, having someone go that extra step (or two, or 10!) makes a LOT of difference, and Penny did that.
She got everything going but more importantly, she spent time with us just talking about where I was at in my treatments and surgeries, how we were holding up through all of it, etc. She added that extra very human touch that we so very much needed that day. I greatly enjoyed Penny the first time she was my pre-op nurse, many months ago with an earlier surgery, and this time she was everything I had remembered and more. I cannot thank her enough for taking the extra effort to help us feel calmer and safe.
This was my 5th surgery in 6 months, so I'm actually very familiar with the whole thing and pretty calm heading into surgery, in general. But this one, having to come in without being able to do all the physical, mental, and emotional prep - it was much more stressful than any other of my surgeries. Penny really helped diffuse that stress because when she came over to talk to us she obviously already had a good idea of what was going on. I know there is limited time to review every patient's chart in the EMR, but for patients such as myself, that are in non-typical situations, reviewing the chart or getting some backstory from the surgeon can go a long way towards helping a patient feel safe and calm.