Lauren Baldwin has worked at CTCA for 4 years now and I have had the pleasure of watching her develop into the epitome of a nurse demonstrating the mother standard. Lauren has always shown various forms of caring and compassion for the patients that come through the doors of Infusion. When she was administering chemotherapy daily she used the time chair-side to really engage our patients; she wanted to learn details about them, their family and often their pets! Even though she isn't hanging chemotherapy as frequently, not a day goes by when she doesn't make a friend out of a patient.
Currently she is "Flow Nurse" of the Infusion department and she is one of the most important individuals on our team. She is the one patients have become so comfortable with they often go to her with light-hearted topics such as a family vacation story, to compare crazy pet pictures or stories, and even share new recipes. Not only is she this personable with the patients, she is also incredibly thorough in her plan of care for each individual. She often catches missed orders or appointments, she makes phone calls to coordinate care before the patient even passes through the doors, and even will personally reach out to them if they are not doing well enough for treatment.
One patient in particular was witness to Lauren's unique demonstration of providing the mother standard of care. She was participating in a clinical trial. Part of the trial consisted of receiving several intradermal injections over several weeks' time; this is often a pretty painful ordeal! As Flow Nurse, Lauren is the one performing this step of the clinical trial and has become a master of relieving anxiety while simultaneously performing these injections. The patient had already received 3 weeks' worth of injections from Lauren and each time she nearly passed out due to her severe needle phobia. Lauren, being the amazing person that she is, was worried about how she could get this patient through these injections all day. She asked me to come in the room with her and JJH, the research representative, just as backup in case the patient did need further assistance during the injections. As all three of us were in the room, we casually discussed with the patient how we could help make this situation better for her and in a joking fashion I suggested we play some music to distract her.
From there, JJH asked what music she liked. Turns out she is a huge Kenny Chesney fan - both Lauren and JJ begin to gush over how much they love him too! They talked about their favorite new song and they all agreed on the same one. JJH instantly pulls it up on her phone and before I know it a karaoke session breaks out between the 3 of them. As the patient is singing along, Lauren discretely starts the series of injections. After the 151 one, she looks at Lauren, who is still singing along and asks if she had started giving the injection yet. Proudly, Lauren sees that singing has been enough of a distraction that this patient may make it through this appointment without feeling like she had in the past. This makes them begin to sing even louder!
Finally Lauren is finished the injections and the song ends. The patient feels perfectly fine and is amazed at both herself and Lauren that she made it through this series of injections without any fear as she had felt before. It became a weekly tradition (and a running joke!) that Lauren and her patient sang a song as the injections were being done.
This demonstration even became a topic of the Safety Call one morning and other stakeholders were invited to sing along with Lauren, JJH, and the infusion team "Flash Mob" style on the day of this patient's last injection. Together as a team we sang a country song that was just catchy enough to keep her distracted. Seeing how this was a running joke, I expected her to laugh along with us, but instead she was overcome with emotions, became a little tearful, and was so thankful for the extra steps that were taken to show how much she was cared for.
Although Lauren proves that she is a great nurse every day, this was clearly going above and beyond the call of duty in an attempt to provide the Mother Standard of Care to her patient. I was truly honored to watch this very personal and caring nursing interaction between her and her patient.