I would like to thank Emma for her outstanding commitment to compassionate nursing care, patient and family advocacy, leadership skills and how she made an extremely poor communication situation beautiful. A patient was moving towards end of life quickly and wanted to go home to die. Thank goodness Emma was working many days in a row (Friday through Monday) because Emma spent the entire weekend working with the patient and family to prepare them for end of life at home. Emma worked with the patient to know his goals for end of life. Emma always included the family with end of life discussions and what to expect and who would be their resources. "Emma was a huge comfort for my family, I did not know what to say to them. She took the lead and allowed my family to ask so many questions. She was so patient with my family and they felt after her discussions (many many discussions) that they could grant me my wishes to die at home. I'm not afraid to die but I'm afraid for my family because they have to keep living".
Emma moved the patient and family from an enormously anxious state to one of acceptance and readiness for end of life at home. When taking someone home to die it can be extremely challenging, there are so many difficulties that can arise and you have no medical support (nurse) at home. The family wanted to grant this patient his wishes to die at home but they had many concerns. After Emma worked with the patient and family all weekend they were calm and ready to go home. Little did anyone, including the primary team know that general surgery was planning to place a stent on Monday. When Monday came, no one had told the patient, family, primary team or RN about the plan to stent the patient. Luckily Emma was back that day as well. There was a lot, and I mean a lot, of anger and confusion in the room. Emma worked tirelessly to help the family through this extremely messy miscommunication. She spent extensive time in the room to try and smooth the situation over. By the end of the day, the family was comfortable with the new plan all because of Emma's direct leadership with providers, compassionate care to the patient and family and passion for a respectful and peaceful death. The patient ended up getting the stent and leaving the next day. This could have been a disastrous situation for both MMC and the family if Emma hadn't worked this hard to correct this mistake. This is just one of the many examples of Emma going far above and beyond for her patients.