Annie exhibits unbelievable advocacy and determination for the sickle cell and thalassemia population at Children's Hospital Colorado. This past year, she assumed the role of meeting with newly diagnosed families with these chronic disease processes. In November, she took the initiative to do a new diagnosis talk with a family from Tanzania at our southern Colorado location. Although she works at the Anschutz location, she knows that the in-person education would better meet the family needs. In her words, she believed that having the time to do individualized education in person was so important in the role of the Nurse Care Coordinator and feels strongly about advocating for this in a highly complex population.
This young child that immigrated to Colorado 2 months ago. Annie immediately recognized the need to have personalized education with an interpreter. Annie assessed what the mother had learned at previous appointments and she said simple words associated with the disease. This disease process is very complex and can impact multiple systems within the body and may have life-threatening complications.
With great patience and determination, Annie was committed to ensuring that the mother understood the education, she averaged about 4 words per translation with the interpreter. She explained all the precautions with fevers, cold temperatures, elevation, reptiles, dehydration, spleen enlargement, anemia. She had the mom and the interpreter read the translated handouts Annie had created for when and how to call as well as a quick reference guide for daycare and school precautions. She ensured that the information was reviewed the pain plan sheet was given in her language as this is considered an emergency in this population. Annie practiced with her on her phone of how to dial the clinic number and say the child's name and ask for an interpreter who spoke her language. She taught her about milliliters and gave her syringes that were marked of how much medication to give as the mother had never administered a medication this way. Her dedication did not stop there, she arranged for the medications to be sent to her house since there are no local pharmacies available and mom had no access to transportation. The value of this personalized education and care plan lasted 4 hours but Annie expressed how invaluable this time was.
Annie's passion for advocacy role models the remarkable impactthat her role as a Nurse Care Coordinator has with her highly complex population of patients. Her compassion exemplifies that vision and mission that nurses at Children's Hospital Colorado make each day.