Father's Day weekend, our family decided to travel up to our cabin for family camp since our Father has been home for the last few months. We all thought getting everyone together, just as long as it was family, would be safe during this pandemic. It was wonderful to see all the nieces and nephews and sisters and brothers and our parents all together again.
Twenty four hours after returning home, a couple of us began having fevers, chills, and headaches. It was literally like a domino effect day after day, sibling after sibling. Out of 22 adults and 17 children and in one week after the camping trip, 18 adults had symptoms or had confirmed COVID test results. Luckily, none of the children had symptoms and are all healthy to this day.
Our mom who's normally very active and independent began experiencing chills, headaches, and body aches. It was tolerable until she began experiencing tachypnea and SOB with exertion. At first, when we found out mom had symptoms, we automatically knew she had COVID since she was living with two young adults with confirmed lab test results and now symptomatic. When her respirations worsened, mom did not want to go to the hospital because she has heard COVID patients were not allowed visitors and we believe she was nervous about her outcome due to her age and existing conditions increasing her frailty. We managed to change her mind and go to the ER.
Following the transfer from the ER to admission to the 2West unit a couple of days after, mom's nurse was Chelsea. As a nurse myself, the family depended on me for communication with the nurses and MDs.
While calling into the unit and discussing status and care for mom, although we found it difficult with mom's dietary preferences in getting it right with all her meals, we have had nothing but great feedback regarding Chelsea. She was very compassionate and intuitive with mom's care. By that I mean she cared for mom in a holistic manner and not just treated mom's COVID. Your company takes pride in your mission, vision, and values every day and that's what I heard in Chelsea's voice and measures taken to not only care for mom but for us as mom's family.
Mission: We felt that mom was given the utmost attention for healing when Chelsea entered her room, brushed her hair, tied it up, and sat with mom for a few minutes just looking outside the window on a beautiful hot day even though my mom spoke very little English. My mom verbalized this to each of us when she called us that she felt so comfortable and cared for by Chelsea whenever Chelsea was her nurse since we couldn't be there for her. This brought tears to many of us knowing someone showed empathy to mom.
Vision: Although Chelsea did not speak Hmong and mom knew little English but the simple yes, no, hurt, tired, mom felt comforted by Chelsea's care. The sense of being one kind of human as in humanity gave mom hope that although we could not be there in person to ensure superb care was being provided, she felt this connection with Chelsea, and we are all thankful for that.
Values: These were all the values that our family, including my mom, felt that Chelsea met or exceeded in during mom's stay:
• Compassion- listening to mom and acknowledging her, hugging her back when mom approached her for a hug.
• Inclusion- providing dignity towards mom's preferences in the types of food that mom preferred to have with all her meals such as white rice and oatmeal in the morning with breakfast.
• Integrity- Chelsea informed us of the concerns the physicians had about discharging her too soon as some of us wondered why mom couldn't just get oxygen at home. When mom was having SOB and Chelsea walked in, my mom approaching her, and giving her a great big hug meant that mom trusted the care in her hands and was relieved to know someone was there to care for her when she was in such a vulnerable state.
• Excellence- Chelsea stood out as one who would go above and beyond to work above her license in caring for mom.
• Collaboration- As a nurse, I strongly do feel the collaboration between not only nurses and physicians is important but of family members for the patient and Chelsea stepped above to help us be able to communicate with mom via video conference.
Please let Chelsea know we have been blessed with her presence and we knew an angel like her would help mom through this difficult time. We look forward to having mom home very soon.