October 2023
Eric
Cohen
,
BSN, RN
Endocrinology Clinic
Seattle Children's Hospital
Seattle
,
WA
United States
As Eric spent days patiently teaching the family how to navigate blood sugars and insulin dosing, he built a relationship with the family where they came to know, love, and trust him. When they felt overwhelmed, he would remind them that he felt confident in them and that they could, in fact, do this incredibly hard thing.
Eric is a new Diabetes Educator in the Endocrinology Clinic. Recently, a family was admitted for a new diagnosis of diabetes. This family was non-English speaking and illiterate in both English and their native tongue. When considering diabetes care that is extremely reliant on numbers, this has posed unique challenges and barriers in educating the family how to safely care for their 17-month-old child.
Eric has consistently demonstrated our values-based behaviors while caring for this family. He demonstrates equity by understanding their unique needs and offering additional support and resources when necessary. Eric is patient with them and pays attention to their individual learning styles. He challenges them to learn new skills but recognizes that each family has its own pace.
He demonstrates innovation by being creative in finding ways for this family to learn despite the language barrier. Eric has gone above and beyond to find creative ways to teach this family how to manage their diabetes at home.
He has demonstrated compassion for this family when they have been overwhelmed by the diagnosis. Eric's number one priority has been discharging the child home safely with the parents. The parents have voiced appreciation for Eric and requested for him to be their primary educator.
Eric has demonstrated collaboration by partnering with the MD, other diabetes educators, social work, and dietician to establish a plan of care. Eric has even participated in care conference discussions on his day off because he is so invested in the care of this family.
Even as a new diabetes educator, Eric is demonstrating role model behavior as he has navigated this difficult situation. Eric's commitment to this family is what the DAISY Award is all about, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving.
***
I first met Eric while working in the Emergency Department three years ago, he has since become a good friend, and I am so proud to nominate him for this DAISY Award.
My first memory of Eric is from when I was the nurse caring for a patient who was in DKA in the Emergency Department and had been newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I remember asking Eric to double-check my insulin infusion and him coming into the room and making the family (who was so overwhelmed by their child’s new diagnosis) feel safe and like everything was going to be okay. This is just one example of how Eric is so kind and empathetic (and has always been so good at making the families of patients with a new diagnosis of diabetes feel less afraid).
Now, Eric is a nurse in our outpatient Endocrinology Clinic, where he is responsible for teaching these same families how to manage their children’s diabetes. I recently had the pleasure of witnessing how he was able to shift an entire model of care to empower a family, who did not know how to speak English or read, to care for their child with diabetes.
The usual course of admission to the hospital for a patient with a new diagnosis of type one diabetes is usually about three days. This gives the patient time to stabilize medically and gives the team of endocrine nurses time to teach the family the basics of caring for their child outside the hospital. This patient that Eric cared for spent a total of 22 days in the hospital, due to the extraordinary barriers that their family faced learning to care for them.
It is not unusual for endocrine nurses to work with interpreters in teaching families how to provide care for their children. However, it is extremely unusual for a family to not only require interpretation to communicate but also be unable to read letters or numbers like this family was. Eric jumped into the challenge and was beyond compassionate with this family for weeks as he collaborated with them to ensure a safe home-going plan of care.
Because there was no model for how to teach this family about insulin dosing that did not rely on their ability to recognize numbers, Eric collaborated with other nurses and providers at the Endocrine Clinic to create a system that relied on fixed dosing and “clicks” (each unit of insulin being “two clicks”). As Eric spent days patiently teaching the family how to navigate blood sugars and insulin dosing, he built a relationship with the family where they came to know, love, and trust him. When they felt overwhelmed, he would remind them that he felt confident in them and that they could, in fact, do this incredibly hard thing.
And after three weeks of hard work and dedicated care, Eric did the impossible. He was able to safely discharge this patient and their family home. I have so much deep respect and appreciation for Eric for the way that he built a special connection with this family. He truly provided them with the tools and the confidence they needed to do something that many might have considered impossible. Eric, you are an amazing nurse and an amazing human, and I continue to be so honored to be on your team.
Eric has consistently demonstrated our values-based behaviors while caring for this family. He demonstrates equity by understanding their unique needs and offering additional support and resources when necessary. Eric is patient with them and pays attention to their individual learning styles. He challenges them to learn new skills but recognizes that each family has its own pace.
He demonstrates innovation by being creative in finding ways for this family to learn despite the language barrier. Eric has gone above and beyond to find creative ways to teach this family how to manage their diabetes at home.
He has demonstrated compassion for this family when they have been overwhelmed by the diagnosis. Eric's number one priority has been discharging the child home safely with the parents. The parents have voiced appreciation for Eric and requested for him to be their primary educator.
Eric has demonstrated collaboration by partnering with the MD, other diabetes educators, social work, and dietician to establish a plan of care. Eric has even participated in care conference discussions on his day off because he is so invested in the care of this family.
Even as a new diabetes educator, Eric is demonstrating role model behavior as he has navigated this difficult situation. Eric's commitment to this family is what the DAISY Award is all about, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving.
***
I first met Eric while working in the Emergency Department three years ago, he has since become a good friend, and I am so proud to nominate him for this DAISY Award.
My first memory of Eric is from when I was the nurse caring for a patient who was in DKA in the Emergency Department and had been newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I remember asking Eric to double-check my insulin infusion and him coming into the room and making the family (who was so overwhelmed by their child’s new diagnosis) feel safe and like everything was going to be okay. This is just one example of how Eric is so kind and empathetic (and has always been so good at making the families of patients with a new diagnosis of diabetes feel less afraid).
Now, Eric is a nurse in our outpatient Endocrinology Clinic, where he is responsible for teaching these same families how to manage their children’s diabetes. I recently had the pleasure of witnessing how he was able to shift an entire model of care to empower a family, who did not know how to speak English or read, to care for their child with diabetes.
The usual course of admission to the hospital for a patient with a new diagnosis of type one diabetes is usually about three days. This gives the patient time to stabilize medically and gives the team of endocrine nurses time to teach the family the basics of caring for their child outside the hospital. This patient that Eric cared for spent a total of 22 days in the hospital, due to the extraordinary barriers that their family faced learning to care for them.
It is not unusual for endocrine nurses to work with interpreters in teaching families how to provide care for their children. However, it is extremely unusual for a family to not only require interpretation to communicate but also be unable to read letters or numbers like this family was. Eric jumped into the challenge and was beyond compassionate with this family for weeks as he collaborated with them to ensure a safe home-going plan of care.
Because there was no model for how to teach this family about insulin dosing that did not rely on their ability to recognize numbers, Eric collaborated with other nurses and providers at the Endocrine Clinic to create a system that relied on fixed dosing and “clicks” (each unit of insulin being “two clicks”). As Eric spent days patiently teaching the family how to navigate blood sugars and insulin dosing, he built a relationship with the family where they came to know, love, and trust him. When they felt overwhelmed, he would remind them that he felt confident in them and that they could, in fact, do this incredibly hard thing.
And after three weeks of hard work and dedicated care, Eric did the impossible. He was able to safely discharge this patient and their family home. I have so much deep respect and appreciation for Eric for the way that he built a special connection with this family. He truly provided them with the tools and the confidence they needed to do something that many might have considered impossible. Eric, you are an amazing nurse and an amazing human, and I continue to be so honored to be on your team.