West Wing Two (WW2) has had many long stay patients since reopening the unit in October of 2021. With increasing mental health needs and other contributing factors in the community, the staff has been faced with many challenges, including patients requiring long-term patient stays.

The unit had one long-term patient who had been on the unit for over 100 days. This patient had worsening dementia and had come to the hospital from her home living alone. Unfortunately, with family and financial issues, this patient required a guardian appointed who would need to place her in long-term care.

When she first joined us on WW2, she exhibited aggressive behaviors and fear stemming from being taken out of her home environment. The WW2 Team took the time to get to know her as a person - her likes and dislikes and how to keep her calm in a new environment. For example, she liked to walk the halls and chat with staff and disliked being told she couldn't leave her room. She quickly became a part of the WW2 team as she often spent time with the staff at the nurse's station and loved walking with the team up and down the halls. They often had to tell her she couldn't go with them into other patients' rooms!

Unfortunately, every seven days there would be a new physician assigned who would have to relearn her story. The nurses and nursing assistants on the WW2 team would help the physicians learn each week how best to care for her.

We cared for her over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and she was devastated to be away from her family. The staff decorated her room for the holidays to bring her cheer. The team even brought gifts for her at Christmas time. This helped to keep her calm throughout the holiday season.

With many competing factors related to placement and decision making her length of stay was over 150 days. Ultimately, she was discharged to a facility (thanks to a lot of hard work from our case management/social work team!!). At discharge, the team planned a fitting goodbye, and all on the unit were actually sad to see her go as she felt like a member of WW2. What we took away from it was that it was a true team effort to keep her behaviors controlled, learn a routine to work with her every day while continuing to care for acutely ill patients, and work through the personal dynamics with the interdisciplinary team. 

The WW2 team was still forming at that time and that experience helped to grow the team and build great team dynamics. They collaborated well together but also with many other members of the CCH team. They all went above and beyond daily the duties of a nursing team and treated this patient like family. I am proud to manage such a strong and collaborative team!