Jessica Ambrose
March 2024
Jessica
Ambrose
,
BSN, RN
Labor and Delivery
University of Maryland Medical Center
Baltimore
,
MD
United States
If it wasn’t for this nurse’s dedication to patient care, her insistence of staying next to her patient no matter what, and her heroic ability to literally carry this patient from the toilet to the bed, the patient might not have been able to deliver this baby safely.
I am writing this letter in recognition of one of our wonderful OBCU nurses, Jessica Ambrose. We recently had a very difficult situation in the OBCU, and the outcome would have surely been very bad if it wasn’t for this nurse’s dedication to patient care.
We had a patient come in active labor. Very soon after arrival to the OBCU, the OB anesthesia team consented to her and attempted epidural placement. Midway through the epidural placement, the patient started screaming because of the pain from contractions, and despite several attempts by Jessica, the charge nurse, as well as the resident team and myself, the patient would not stay still for her epidural and forcibly got out of bed. Luckily, OB anesthesia was able to pull the needle out of her back before she got out of bed. The patient then started pacing around the room and in her bathroom, often sitting on the toilet (while bearing down) and going into the shower and turning the water on. The bathroom floors were all wet at that time and she was at a very high risk of slipping and falling. The patient also pulled her IV out and started screaming curse words. The entire staff including Jessica made several attempts to redirect the patient to her bed but the patient was very combative and continued to push everyone away.
Through this whole process, Jessica never left the patient. She climbed with her in the bathtub. She held her while she was screaming on the bathroom floor. She was able to calm the patient down enough to accept an IM injection of Ativan. During this whole time, the patient was violently scratching and shoving everyone around her, and Jessica was on the receiving end of several of those hits. A BERT team was called in order to protect our staff, but the security personnel stayed outside the room. Ultimately, the patient seemed to be baring down and it seemed delivery was inevitable. She was sitting on the toilet and refusing to get off at that point. Jessica literally hoisted the patient off the toilet and carried her to the bed. The patient was ultimately able to deliver in a safe manner.
If it wasn’t for this nurse’s dedication to patient care, her insistence of staying next to her patient no matter what, and her heroic ability to literally carry this patient from the toilet to the bed, the patient might not have been able to deliver this baby safely.
We had a patient come in active labor. Very soon after arrival to the OBCU, the OB anesthesia team consented to her and attempted epidural placement. Midway through the epidural placement, the patient started screaming because of the pain from contractions, and despite several attempts by Jessica, the charge nurse, as well as the resident team and myself, the patient would not stay still for her epidural and forcibly got out of bed. Luckily, OB anesthesia was able to pull the needle out of her back before she got out of bed. The patient then started pacing around the room and in her bathroom, often sitting on the toilet (while bearing down) and going into the shower and turning the water on. The bathroom floors were all wet at that time and she was at a very high risk of slipping and falling. The patient also pulled her IV out and started screaming curse words. The entire staff including Jessica made several attempts to redirect the patient to her bed but the patient was very combative and continued to push everyone away.
Through this whole process, Jessica never left the patient. She climbed with her in the bathtub. She held her while she was screaming on the bathroom floor. She was able to calm the patient down enough to accept an IM injection of Ativan. During this whole time, the patient was violently scratching and shoving everyone around her, and Jessica was on the receiving end of several of those hits. A BERT team was called in order to protect our staff, but the security personnel stayed outside the room. Ultimately, the patient seemed to be baring down and it seemed delivery was inevitable. She was sitting on the toilet and refusing to get off at that point. Jessica literally hoisted the patient off the toilet and carried her to the bed. The patient was ultimately able to deliver in a safe manner.
If it wasn’t for this nurse’s dedication to patient care, her insistence of staying next to her patient no matter what, and her heroic ability to literally carry this patient from the toilet to the bed, the patient might not have been able to deliver this baby safely.