I walked in on a patient, and
she had been lying on the couch for 14 hours.
Her husband had recently passed.
And she just wanted to hold the flag,
and she ended up losing her balance.
She put her walker to the side to reach for the flag,
and she said,"It took everything in me, but
I threw myself on that couch."
And she said I was scheduled to come
at 1:00, so, she just watched
the clock all night long
and knew I was coming at 1:00.
For 14 hours.
Nobody checked on her.
The phone rang, and she thought oh good,
somebody's calling me. They'll come and check on me.
Nobody came.
And when I walked in the house and I heard,
"Oh, Carol. Thank God you're here."
Her voice was so weak.
I ran over, I took a look,
and just saw the way she was like.
But she was an OR nurse, and she
knew how to take care of herself all night.
Those nurses are tough, aren't they?
Yeah, she managed to get through the night.
But the first thing you do—she's diabetic—
check her sugar, check her blood pressure,
check her heart rate.
Let's call the doctor.
Get her something to eat and drink.
An individual clinician can do only so much,
but the help of the nurse and the therapist
you spoke to that a little bit.
Talk to me a little bit about how
important you think that is and the work that you do.
Just the communication that you can have between,
you know, when you see a change
in a patient. "Hey, I really think Ruth is struggling more
with her balance."
I knew that Wendy was going in
the next day and work with Ruth on her balance.
Maybe having Ruth do something
that she didn't even know she was working on
her balance. Just passing a ball back and forth to each other
while you're standing.
Balance is working with the proprioception,
and Ruth didn't even know she was doing it.
Yeah, that's good therapy.
When you have to sneak it in.
Yeah, yeah.
And just having that communication
back and forth, like, "Hey, I really
think that I heard more crackling
in her chest, even without a stethescope.
That means that I should get back
in there and listen to her lungs
and reassess. Let's prevent that hospitalization."
You work in the ICU, it's a
very controlled environment, and you got
pullcarts and pushcarts, and you've got a team that
sort of covers your back,
and you don't have to think about the dog,
and you don't have to think about any of that other stuff,
but you speak very—I mean, you get it.
Oh yeah.
So, I don't know that you learn that in a hospital,
so where did you pick up this?
Because you're looking at all of the other social needs
that these folks have, because that's
really what we're trying to do.
And I think that develops along the way
when you're working with your coworkers
and you see.
When I oriented with the Berk office,
they let me go out with a medical social worker,
and I got to have a hands-on look
at what exactly they do.
And occupational therapy, you know,
they just do so much more
than I ever thought as far as
thinking about every little step
to get in and out of the shower.
And how are you going to bathe safely?
Yeah, they could probably do it,
but they might end up falling.
Or cooking in the kitchen, are they even coherent enough
in their mind to turn on the heat
and remember to turn off the heat.
What I loved about doing home health care
for the five years that I did it was
you have to be the best PT or the best nurse
to deliver home-based services.
Because you're not just a PT, you're not just a nurse,
you're a little bit of a social worker.
When care is delivered effectively,
it's holistic, right?
It isn't just the client, it isn't just the family member,
it's the dog—right.
And so, you can do a lot by sitting, listening,
and watching. Right?
Every day is a new adventure
for skilled nurses.
Just getting up and knowing
that you're going to make a difference.
So we like to meet people where they are
and really, really bring them what they need.