November 2021
Taylor
Pramuk
,
BSN, RN
Surgical Recovery
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

Most importantly, Taylor helped us cope after learning his diagnosis by just listening when necessary.
Taylor was very courteous and helpful throughout our 11-day stay as we learned our son was diagnosed with kidney cancer and recovered from a nephrectomy. She helped us to get sleep as much as we were able to overnight by coordinating our son's care schedule such that she limited interruptions. (e.g. combining vitals checks with medication schedule) She was always very respectful regarding our sleep and our son's sleep to try to help us all dedicate our energy towards our son's recovery.

Another specific example, when administering IV medicine via the IV machine, she would set a timer for 1 minute before the alarm would sound indicating the dose was complete - this way she ensured she was in the room to turn off the alarm before it woke us or our son when we were sleeping - which sounds trivial, but made a huge difference in facilitating our sleep.

She took the time to listen to us and understand, then advocated for our family with regard to pain management immediately following his nephrectomy when the medication schedule was insufficient to keep our son comfortable. She helped us feel a sense of continuity with his care by communicating clearly as we split time between home with his twin sister and the hospital with our son.

During our 11-day stay we were fortunate enough to have Taylor as our nurse on 5-6 shifts and she learned our routines and always made sure we had what we needed, as parents, to support him. She made sure L was always stocked on pumping supplies, and always helped E make sure he had milk from the fridge prepared to feed him when L was at home. She also learned many of our son's mannerisms and helped him return to being a happy, smiley boy after his multiple surgeries. Most importantly, she helped us cope after learning his diagnosis by just listening when necessary.

Taylor made sure we were educated on medication schedules, the purposes of various medications, and how to care for our son through the various different situations we experienced throughout our stay. She also helped us understand the various processes in the hospital which may seem obvious to various hospital staff but are very overwhelming to those unfamiliar with the hospital setting. E.g. - E had no idea what "rounds" were and how they worked or how to contact various doctors for questions until Taylor explained.

Nursing twins means L pumped quite frequently and needed to store larger volumes. Taylor always made sure our room was stocked with clean bottles to pump into and established a trustworthy system of stopping by the room to check for milk that needed to be stored in the fridge so we didn't have to repeatedly call for her. Taylor always made sure to communicate with us the plan for our son's care. Because she worked nights, she would be sure to cover things ahead of time in case we were sleeping so she wouldn't need to wake us up to discuss administering medications or let us know when the doctors had new information/orders or when they would be coming to visit us.