Anna Looper and these two CNA's, Bella & Jacee, delivered the best care and compassion in all the hospital. My stepson was admitted last week to St. Al's at 20 years old for multiple strokes, depression issues, and needed physical rehab as well as drug rehab. He started at St. Al's in Ontario, was admitted in Boise to the Cardiac ICU, was moved to the surgical floor and then shifted to the medical floor in the South Tower, all in the first 2 days of his hospital stay. It was on the medical floor that we met them and we really started to feel like he was less a number and more of a person to the staff at St. Al's. My stepson was on that floor for a week before he had another stroke and landed back in ICU where we are today. The issues they have to deal with daily are items that most nurses and CNA's try and avoid, older, acute patients and constantly dealing with bodily fluids and bed sores as well as potentially not a lot of success in returning to a healthy state. Despite being constantly overworked and dealing with the highest acuity patients these three displayed constant concern, compassion to us all, positive attitudes and in their own way personalized his care at St. Als.
Bella, who is the same age as him, talked to him about her story as a refugee, she encouraged him as only two twenty-year-old kids can do to each other, and she told him "what you are doing in life right now is surviving, not living and you really want to live this life". She even got him up and walking when no one else could. Jacee was fabulous, she was also close to his age and she joked with him, brightened his spirits, one day he wanted a Dr. Pepper and the kitchen took over an hour to bring it to him so she went to the cafeteria and got one for him—that's caring. He had to have help being bathed and had trouble with getting to the restroom in time, it would be embarrassing for most 20-year-old boys to have this kind of help but especially embarrassing when those helping you are your same age. Bella and Jacee made him so comfortable that he might have been embarrassed but he didn't show it.
Anna had such a kind approach, she checked on him constantly even though she provided care for 4 other patients, she responded to our requests promptly and she also got his coordination of care set up. He was starving the first day he was moved to the medical floor and he needed ST sign off, he was moved a half hour before the ST was supposed to show up and Anna made sure they got the message on where he was located and that he was starving.
As a health care professional, being a patient or a family member of a patient can be frustrating because you know what is "supposed to happen" and when it doesn't it is frustrating. These three ladies and really all the nurses on the medical floor deserve recognition, a pay raise and a ton of thanks. They have some of the toughest emotional jobs and they manage to remain bright and cheerful, and helpful in an otherwise dreary area. They made him feel like a person and as a parent watching your adult child struggle, those positive influences are priceless.