Research Week- Assignment 22

This week I focused on interviews. I completed one email interview and I am working on scheduling more in person interviews. 

I interviewed a family member of my neighbor who had a son that was very sick and in the the hospital.

How did the nurses treat you/your family/your son?

The nurses at Children's Healthcare were amazing! They cared for Eli like he was their own child. Over the course of our 8 month stay, they became family. When Eli would have setbacks, they cried when we cried. When he had successes, they celebrated with us too. We communicate with them still and always make time to visit with everyone when we have appointments.

Did you have any bad experiences?

Overall, our stay was pleasant. We did have 2 nurses that we asked to not have back again. One was a night shift nurse and we had her a few times. She would come in many times during the night to check vitals and give meds. She would turn on the lights and talk so loudly. I would usually get up anytime a nurse came in so I could help and monitor what was happening. She would wake Eli up several times during the night and it was hard for him to go back to sleep. So, he didn't get a good night's rest and that made for a crabby day the next day. After a few times of this we asked for someone else.

The other nurse was an icu nurse. She had Eli and another patient. The other patient's family was rude and disrespectful and caused a scene. Consequently, she took out her frustrations with us. We immediately asked for the charge nurse and were reassigned another nurse. We had the cold shoulder for a few days from the charge nurse, but Eli's care was more important. We didn't need the added stress of having a nurse who was unfocused and moody. 

Is there anything that a nurse did that stuck in your mind?

The nurse that took the icu night nurse's place was the most amazing person. She was a veteran nurse and only worked night shifts. Tim and I made such a connection with her. She even let us watch her ipad and use her Amazon account to rent movies. I don't think she was like that with all patients. She took stellar care of Eli. As a matter of fact, she gets all of the credit for restoring Eli's skin. She would scrub his body, inch by inch, to get all of the dead skin off so new could grow. She was one of our favorites! 

The night we were told that the doctors could not do anything more for Eli, I was alone at the hospital. Tim was on his way, but I had to wait an hour or so for him to arrive. I asked the icu nurse to call the bmt floor to see if any of our team of nurses were on duty. I wanted one to come sit with me if they could. 4 of them came immediately! They even brought supplies to make a cast of his hand. This is something they do for families when the child is not expected to survive. They sat and cried with me. They held my hand and hugged me. They comforted me in the most terrible situation. They stayed with us for hours (but running back to the bmt floor to check on their patients). After this night, someone stopped by every night to check on us and Eli until we were transferred back to the bmt floor.

All of the nurses went out of their way to make us feel at home. Eli wouldn't eat so one nurse stopped and bought those baby puffs for him to eat since she knew I wouldn't leave him. We were there for so long, we formed relationships with our regular nurses. One nurse got engaged and another became pregnant. It was a neat experience to share these life-changing moments with them.