Janie went above and beyond the call of duty in her own unit to assist with a very difficult conversation in MICU.
The language lines were not functioning appropriately after the storm; there was a lot of static during the time I was trying to communicate with a very sick and very critical patient's mother, who only spoke Spanish. Because of this difficulty, I called Janie to see if she would have the time and ability to step away from her own patients to help with an end of life conversation with this same patient's family. She came to MICU with a smile on her face, went to the waiting room with me to retrieve the patient's family and immediately began establishing a rapport with the mother and father of the patient.
The parents immediately trusted Janie and listened very carefully to everything she was saying/translating. She stayed away from her own patients for over an hour, helping us translate and also stayed with the family after all the difficult decisions were made. She was very compassionate, professional and even cried with my patient's family during this difficult time.
She far exceeded our (Dr. E's and my) expectations. I truly appreciate her for assisting with this difficult conversation.