One of the qualities of the nurses on the unit I am nominating for The DAISY Team Award is that they have continuously exhibited the value of resiliency with ingenuity. They have the ability to deal with everything being thrown at them, finish a shift, give report, and call it a day. But then again come back the next day, to do it all over again. The staff depends on their deep convictions that effective care providers, no matter the circumstances, should treat their patients every day with the utmost clinical excellence and also deliver that care with genuine compassion.
As nurses on the frontline of caring for patients admitted for the management of the Coronavirus 2019, I was extremely amazed at the flexibility of the nurses on this unit in caring for their patients not only compassionately but holistically. They are making a difference in making a very tough situation bearable for both the clinicians and the patients under their competent care.
One of the most impacted sectors of the population during the pandemic is the elderly that seeks medical attention with multiple co-morbidities. It is unfortunate that many of these vulnerable segments of the community turn up to this unit for COVID-19 management and treatment. Besides caring for their clinical needs that include symptoms alleviations and provision of comfort, many of them require psychological interventions that are exacerbated by the ongoing isolation procedures as crucial management for COVID-19.
Loneliness has affected one particular elderly patient in the unit who was positive for the COVID-19 virus. The patient yearned and clamored for companionship and company during her stay in the unit. The need to accommodate this need has triggered the staff to keep the patient close to the nurse's station so care providers can efficiently respond to her when needed. When a baby monitor was made available for the unit, the patient was immediately set up for the device, giving the added benefit of auditory communication between the clinicians and the patient. However, the patient's hospital stay lingered as she remained positive for the virus, as confirmed by repeat testing. This complicated her acceptance to several facilities being worked out by case management for potential care transition for hospice care. As her hospitalization lingered, she became more anxious and confused with some attempts to climb out of bed. These incidences were prevented by the staff who were quick to respond despite putting their own PPE before entering the patient's room. Her safety and protection were essential plans of care for the team that, despite her multiple calls and attempts to climb out of the bed that triggers the bed alarm, the clinicians in the unit are ever ready to respond despite a heavy patient acuity in the unit.
Now comes, the delivery of the reprogrammed patient-specific iPad to the unit that was retrofitted to support provider-patient/ family video teleconferencing application. After the iPad units have been tagged and tested for functionality, the staff in the unit have thought of a great immediate use for the technology. Trust the ingenuity of the team to think about using the iPad system as a dedicated tele video monitoring system to monitor the activities of the confused patient in isolation safely. After testing and ironing the logistics of the plan, an iPad unit was safely deployed to the patient's room with another complement iPad in the nurse's station that served as a video monitor for the patient. Staff rotated to monitor the patient while doing documentation. The utilization of the system as a set-up to monitor the patient via video and audio monitor have several advantages. It has decreased high-risk interactions with the patient and allowed the nurses to maintain a personal connection with the patient, as well as preserving PPE utilization.
As the gratitude of the patient's family poured in during the course of the patient's hospitalization (whose multiple phone calls were graciously accommodated by the staff due to physical visitation restrictions) the staff in the unit have consistently shown that they are making a difference in many ways than they can imagine. This particular situation is only one occasion where the constant out of the box thinking and creativity of the staff in the unit have been on display. But certainly, this serves as a continual reminder that nursing care and compassionate care in this unit are not affected by situations around them, but instead challenging conditions such as this serves as a catalyst for them to rise beyond and do more for the benefit of the patients even during stressful pandemic events.