“Do you feel safe at home?” It’s a question patients routinely are asked and, if needed, resources are offered to help protect them. But what happens when a family member of the patient does not feel safe at home?
Nurse Lena Wright encountered this situation when caring for a patient in the Surgery Center at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. She was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses for her work on behalf of the wife of a patient.
Before Lena even met the patient, she received a message from the prep nurse that things didn’t seem right in this patient’s home. Her assessment of the patient helped her pick up on the strained domestic situation between the patient and his wife.
Lena acted quickly. She arranged for a social worker to visit with the wife as soon as the patient left for surgery. The wife finally felt safe enough to share the fear and anxiety related to her husband’s change in behavior at home. The social worker and nurse provided the wife with multiple resources for help and explained that she needn’t live in fear. A plan also was set with the patient’s primary care provider to further assess the patient to see if other health reasons were causing his change in behavior.
Lena’s Surgery Center co-workers shared some of her other duties while she was assisting the patient’s wife. “This was a group effort,” Wright says. “I couldn’t have helped if everyone else hadn’t backed me up.” Laurie Wensink, director of Perioperative Services, also deserves praise, Wright says, noting that emotional support is equally important when facing an issue like domestic violence. “Laurie was my rock through all this,” Wright says. “She even arranged for a debriefing, something I wouldn't have done for myself otherwise.”
For this patient’s wife, Lena Wright’s assistance made a world of difference, Wensink notes: “When the wife left, she said this was the best day she had in months because, for at least a short while, she felt safe and supported.”