At the end of a busy shift, a family member of the Mother/Baby unit (adjoins Ortho/Onc unit) was seen standing on the Ortho/Onc unit looking lost. Marien approached him and realized he was Spanish speaking only, so she started to converse with him in Spanish. He told her he "needed to give milk to his baby in NICU" but didn't understand what he needed to do to make this happen. Marien investigated by speaking to the NICU staff and discovered that his baby had been transferred to a higher level of care NICU but his spouse was still a patient in our Mother/Baby unit.
Marien escorted him to his spouse's room and engaged the NICU staff to pack the breast milk appropriately for the dad to transport. Going the extraordinary step further, Marien called the NICU at the other facility and spoke to a nurse there to ensure that dad had everything they needed and to get directions to the unit. She was also able to get the dad on the phone with a Spanish speaking nurse at the other facility so he could hear for himself how his newborn was doing and reassure the dad. Before ending the call, Marien confirmed with the nurse and the dad that everything was clearly understood. Marien also took the time to write out the driving directions to the other facility as well as all the contact information for their NICU and gave it to the dad, again reviewing and making sure he understood.
This story was told to me (a nurse leader) by another staff nurse and when I approached Marien to commend her she shrugged and said, "Oh, it was no big deal. He needed help so I helped him." Marien goes out of her way to ensure every person she encounters is well cared for regardless if they are her orthopedic/oncology patients or those patients/families on our neighboring Mother/Baby unit.