Raquel Rivera
December 2023
Raquel
Rivera
,
BSN, RN
Antepartum Special Care Unit
Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children/Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies
Orlando
,
FL
United States
When you are in a hospital it's obvious that each nurse has other patients to attend to but Raquel never made us feel like we were a burden, asking too many questions, or asking for too many things.
We met Raquel on our first night in antepartum, after being admitted, coming from triage. We had known we would be staying for a while, hopefully, but it was still very disorienting and scary. My wife had been put on a magnesium drip and was drowsy. Pre-eclampsia was being evaluated and we were only 26 weeks along.
It was just an hour after we had been shown our room that Raquel came in for her shift. She was very professional and asked questions about what was going on and why we were in the hospital. She listened to our story about how we were pregnant with twins and thought we might lose them at 19 weeks. We got them to 26 but needed more constant monitoring to be sure we didn't lose them once they were viable. She paid close attention to my wife, who was still on mag, but she also talked to me and was helpful in showing us the Murphy bed that I could use, arranging sheets and pillows, and answering all the questions we were asking.
When you are in a hospital it's obvious that each nurse has other patients to attend to but Raquel never made us feel like we were a burden, asking too many questions, or asking for too many things. She would politely excuse herself if she was needed elsewhere but she always came back to check on us. She never once turned on the bright, operating room-style lights, in the middle of the night. She treated us as though she was taking care of a family member. We felt more at ease starting that night and we were blessed to have her with us almost every weekend for the next 6 weeks that we were in the hospital.
We asked her every hypothetical outcome we could fathom so that we were more mentally prepared for what might come and she made time to answer each and every question with professionalism, facts, details, and even humor when she could. I can't imagine a nicer person to take care of my wife. In the 63 days we spent on the antepartum floor, the only three nights I didn't stay with my wife were nights Raquel would be with her.
It was just an hour after we had been shown our room that Raquel came in for her shift. She was very professional and asked questions about what was going on and why we were in the hospital. She listened to our story about how we were pregnant with twins and thought we might lose them at 19 weeks. We got them to 26 but needed more constant monitoring to be sure we didn't lose them once they were viable. She paid close attention to my wife, who was still on mag, but she also talked to me and was helpful in showing us the Murphy bed that I could use, arranging sheets and pillows, and answering all the questions we were asking.
When you are in a hospital it's obvious that each nurse has other patients to attend to but Raquel never made us feel like we were a burden, asking too many questions, or asking for too many things. She would politely excuse herself if she was needed elsewhere but she always came back to check on us. She never once turned on the bright, operating room-style lights, in the middle of the night. She treated us as though she was taking care of a family member. We felt more at ease starting that night and we were blessed to have her with us almost every weekend for the next 6 weeks that we were in the hospital.
We asked her every hypothetical outcome we could fathom so that we were more mentally prepared for what might come and she made time to answer each and every question with professionalism, facts, details, and even humor when she could. I can't imagine a nicer person to take care of my wife. In the 63 days we spent on the antepartum floor, the only three nights I didn't stay with my wife were nights Raquel would be with her.