IRC Nursing Staff at Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono
May 2023
IRC Nursing Staff
at Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono
IRC - Inpatient Rehabilitation Center
Lehigh Valley Hospital - Pocono
East Stroudsburg
,
PA
United States
Nory Abalos, RN; Michelle Bacon, RN; Karla Blas, RN; Janet Fiki, RN; Patricia Francis-Coates, HUC/NA; Lisa Gonzalez, NA; Rita Hakizimana, NA; Virginia Kmetz, RN; Paige Makarevich, RN; Frances McNulty, RN; Iris Powell, NA; Chazemine Rivera, NA; Fatima Riza, RN; Kayla Rosica, RN; Eileen Rowley, RN

 

 

 

In Inpatient Rehabilitation Center, patients are with us for 2-4 weeks. They tend to have many visitors, are brought items from home such as clothing, food/snacks, and personal items to make their extended stays more comfortable, and to feel more like a home.

A particular patient on rehab did not have many visitors, and the visitor that she wished could come, her sister, could not visit due to a cancer diagnosis. The patient kept speaking of wanting some food such as pizza or pasta. Fran and Ginny decided to coordinate a homemade pasta dinner and brought it in to her during their shift. They surprised her with a big homemade pasta dinner, of which they each made a dish. The patient felt so special, it was all she talked about. She was smiling ear to ear the entire day and was so excited to have her special homemade dinner by her nurses in her room after her therapies were complete for the day. This collaboration to ensure superior, personalized, and heart felt care made the difference in this patient’s stay with us.

The next day as I rounded on her and greeted her in the morning to see how her night was, she brought up how wonderful dinner was. She said how she loved it, how the staff are so incredibly nice, and that no one has ever done something like that for her before. She said she wished she could have a dinner like that again. I went and told Fran, who happened to be working that day, and Fran said that they saved leftovers in the refrigerator in case she wanted more. This patient will get to have a second night of the nurse’s homemade pasta dinner. This moment mattered and showed the dedication of the nursing staff to their patients.