I am actually writing this for my wife, who is a nurse at MRMC. She works in the ASU. I know she is the best nurse there is. I would share it every day, but today I got to witness it firsthand, so I wanted to share it with you. She had a patient coming in for Surgery and probably did all the normal stuff, but she called to involve me today because I work at St. Mary's Hospital in the sleep center and she needed some advice.
Lynnette's patient is an end-stage COPD and the patient needed to come in on a home vent for the procedure. She wanted to get information from me on the unit, so staff could be aware of what the unit actually does. She also was concerned the patient was not wearing the unit correctly at home and she was worried about the patient. So, she called me, the pulmonary group, the patient, and the homecare company all to work with the patient. After she spoke with her manager the patient had to be changed to the Main OR. She followed through with the report. She couldn't get a hold of the lady and she remembered the patient's husband was coming in for a heart Cath today.
When she went to see if the patient was there with her husband and she was, but the patient's husband now had to have open-heart surgery on Monday. The patient was supposed to have her procedure on Monday also. Lynnette educated the patient's family members on the fact her surgery was getting moved and explained that the patient needed to have an evaluation with anesthesia. She also got home care company information from the patient to follow up with the equipment regarding misuse at home to help the patient. She took the time to talk with the family since so much was going on and also to find out if they were equipped to handle two of them having surgery at the same time. Her husband is her main caretaker. The daughter said more family was coming in and they were ready but prefer not having both of them having surgery on the same day.
Lynnette got the surgery date moved to the Surgeon's backup choice that worked better for the family. She went and made Anesthesia go see the patient while she was at the hospital with her husband, so she wouldn't have to find time to come in for another appointment while her husband getting ready for surgery. She called the Pulmonary group to keep them updated on the patient. She had the home care company set up a time to go see the patient to discuss the equipment and educate the patient and family. She even arranged for Biomed to come to check out the equipment when the patient comes in for surgery in the Main OR. This is what she does all the time, but because I got to help her, I found out the whole story.