February 2022
Hannah N
Hill
,
BSN, RN
Intermediate Care Unit
Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center
The Woodlands
,
TX
United States
Hannah used her incredible therapeutic communication skills to reassure him that help was on the way and engaged him in conversation in order to distract him.
During the busiest time of the morning, Hannah received a phone call on her spectra link from a distressed member of the community who expressed that he wanted to harm himself. Hannah enlisted help from co-workers to reach out to emergency response to get police and medical assistance to him, all while keeping him calm on the phone. She reached out to our Social Worker, who is a trained therapist, and offered to let the caller speak to a therapist. The caller chose to continue speaking with Hannah and she used her incredible therapeutic communication skills to reassure him that help was on the way and engaged him in conversation in order to distract him. It was very difficult to get an accurate address from him but Hannah did not give up until she was able to provide EMS with the patient’s location. She spent a total of 40 minutes on the phone with this gentleman. Hannah could have easily passed the call on to our Social Worker instead of getting behind in her own patient care, however, she chose to stay on the line with the patient. I cannot imagine a more compassionate person to handle this situation than her and I am grateful that she was the one who picked up the phone when he was reaching out for help.