Works for Me Wednesday – hospital hints

In 1998 my mother had a very large brain tumor removed and spent several days afterwards in a coma. I noticed while I was visiting that the caregivers were very competent, very professional, but somewhat detached from my mother. It was as if she was a body to care for but not a person. So one night my kids and I made a poster. I put a picture of her in the center in a nice dress with her hair fixed beautifully, and pictures of the kids doing funny things like swimming and playing.
We also wrote “Get well soon” and “We love grandma” on red hearts around the picture. The next time I went to ICU, I put the poster up near her bed. Many of her nurses and caregivers saw it and smiled. They started asking me questions about my mom like, what she use to do? how many grandkids? and stuff like that. She became more personal for them, and when she finally woke up, she was pleasantly surprised to find that her caregivers already knew a little bit about her life.

During this recent hospitalization, I took a a brag book up to the hospital, and she has been sharing her family and her experiences with the nurse’s aids and staff when they come to her room. Mom told me that she’s had several pleasant visits with people looking at her pictures.

Today mom will go to surgery and I plan to make another poster to hang in her room, that will speak about who she is and what her life is like while mom can’t so that she will be more of a complete person to the people caring for her. I think that it is so important for them to see her as a woman with a life and loved ones instead of merely an 81-year-old cancer patient, with the goal that the will each give her the best of care. That’s the plan anyway!

Works for Me.

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