June 2022
Karuna
Dhakal
,
BSN, RN
17 Med Secure
Parkland Health & Hospital System
Dallas
,
TX
United States
She also dances with them, exercises with them, and, most importantly, listens to them.
Karuna is delightful, hardworking, and demonstrates the ICARE values in her daily interactions with patients, visitors, and staff. Seventeen Med Secure is a challenging unit. The patients have behavioral and psychiatric issues along with their medical diagnoses and are almost all at risk for elopement so do not want to be on a locked unit. They often have poor coping mechanisms and are prone to episodes of agitation and aggression. This nurse cares for these unique and often aggressive patients by maintaining boundaries and redirecting them. She is barely 5 feet tall, but she never backs down from helping a larger patient who is in distress. She does this in a respectful manner that protects the patient’s dignity and self-worth. She interacts with these patients in a positive manner using humor, redirection, and a calm voice. She also dances with them, exercises with them, and, most importantly, listens to them. These activities not only help to cheer patients and to increase their self-worth, but it also promotes a calm environment and does wonders to decrease the incidence of WPV. This RN works closely with her nursing colleagues, the medical providers, Social Workers, and student nurses to ensure everyone knows what is going on with the patients and how to avoid triggering behaviors. She is a staunch patient advocate who works hard to limit the use of restraints or other restrictive measures. We have had a run of very young Autistic patients on the unit in the last year and she is especially kind to them, helping reorient them to the unfamiliar surroundings and ensuring the staff follows standard care routines to help reduce their stress. She has a wonderful sense of humor and keeps everyone in stitches with her case studies, but she never presents the patients in less than a favorable light. Recently, she assisted me in giving two of these patients their COVID vaccine. I was impressed with the time she spent preparing, encouraging, and explaining the vaccine to the patients. This is what the ICARE values demonstrate, no matter how difficult, we treat people fairly, in recognition of their intrinsic worth.