I am a behavioral health social worker for Trauma Services at Dell Seton Medical Center. I service patients who have been through traumatic events and may need help with coping and resources to support their recovery.
I wanted to share a situation that I believe could have been easily overlooked due to an expedient discharge of a patient on a Monday morning. Recently, I received a call from an RN resident who was precepting with Lindsey. I was told that a patient who had been sexually assaulted was leaving within the hour because of a pending surgery at another facility. Lindsey asked the resident to contact me to see if the patient could be seen before discharge within an hour. At the same time, the nurse had another patient two doors down leaving soon who had sustained a gunshot wound.
I met with the sexual assault patient first, who had been beaten badly in her home by an unknown intruder and happened to be a retired nurse. In her case, there were a variety of things to get in place quickly within the 45 minutes I had with her related to the police department, victim services, arranging specialized counseling, and providing immediate emotional support as she was still very shaken. The 2nd patient was not very different regarding her needs - providing emotional support, engaging police and victim services support, providing free counseling resources for her and her family.
Neither one of these patients would have gotten critical support services if it hadn't been for their nurse to think of engaging mental health support for both of these women - all in the midst of a hurried discharge on an early Monday morning when there's so much more to do. Lindsey didn't flinch and think "oh, it's too late" or "there's not enough time" or any other thought that may have brushed off the impetus for acting. She reached out, she called, she cared. I think this is exemplary of a compassionate nurse because she valued these patients' emotional and mental needs and wanted to assure that those parts were given care.