June 2022
Jose
Vargas
,
RN
1 South Med-Surg Unit
HSHS St. Joseph's Hospital
Breese
,
IL
United States
You could visibly see the patient relax when Jose was there to speak with him.
A patient who only spoke Spanish arrived at the ED seeking treatment and appeared to have some type of chest area complaint. We were able to complete the initial assessment and evaluation with the MD interpreting. The patient had a new diagnosis of potential CHF and needed to be admitted for a cardiac workup. The patient was visibly very anxious and nervous about all the tests and things happening that he did not fully understand. We were unable to reach the in-house interpreter by phone, so we proceeded to the overhead page for her to report to ED when she was available. Jose heard us paging for our interpreter and came to the ED to offer his help since he also speaks Spanish. The patient was so grateful to speak with Jose and was comforted by his knowledge of the diagnosis and plans going forward. You could visibly see the patient relax when Jose was there to speak with him. Jose took the time to come and offer help to a patient when he was not expected to and made a huge difference in the experience this patient had.