My friend’s grandmother fell and broke her hip on her 94th birthday. A day that was supposed to be spent with family celebrating ended up quite different — with an agonizing day in the ER. Although in great pain, she kept her sense of humor and quickly developed an attachment to her ER nurse. The nurse shared how she was headed out of town for a football game as soon as her shift ended. When the nurse asked if there was anything else she could get her, the elderly woman quipped, “a birthday balloon sure would be nice.”
The story could have ended here, but it didn’t. My friend’s grandmother was later moved up to an inpatient room to prepare for surgery the next day. About an hour after she was settled in her room, a knock on the door, and in walked guess who: the ER nurse with what else — a Happy Birthday balloon. Even though she was “off duty” and in a hurry to get out of town, she made the time to get a balloon and deliver it to someone who was no longer on her watch. And it didn’t end there either, two days later, the nurse arrived again on her lunch break to check and see how “her patient” was doing after surgery.
This nurse put the “care” in health care. She certainly did not have to do all she did. She took the initiative. She made the time. She cared. With reimbursements increasingly dependent on patient satisfaction, something as simple as a balloon and a brief visit can be just what the doctor ordered.