Mary Hawes and Michael Hefton, RN Associate CNO
September 2013
Mary
Hawes
,
RN
Eating Disorder Unit at Children's Medical Center at Legacy
Children's Medical Center
Dallas
,
TX
United States
Mary is the RN team leader on the eating disorder unit and we frequently have patients who are difficult to motivate, which is essential in helping these patients recover from their eating disorder. Mary spends a great of deal of time getting to know the patient and developing an individualized behavior program that encourages the patient to be successful.
Mary is very creative and attentive to details and is able to figure out what strategies will work best. For example, many times patients are motivated to earn privilege time to play video games, but for other patients, it can be more complicated. We recently had a 5-yr-old autistic patient with eating difficulties who was only motivated to take bites of new foods when he could use an ipad to play shape games as a reward. Mary was able to figure this out during her interactions with the patient and he began to eat solid foods for the first time using this approach.
Another example of caring practice demonstrated by Mary is with a teenage girl who has a chronic eating disorder and was recently here on her sixth admission. It is extremely difficult to motivate this patient and she can also have a negative impact on the therapeutic milieu. Mary was able to work with this patient and develop a "reflection program" which involved this patient having to earn time with her peers. The patient had to be able to eat her food and be respectful of others in order to earn having her meals in the dining area with her peers. The patient was quick to let us all know that she would never participate in "that stupid plan", but within a short time, was able to "earn" her way out of the reflection program and join her peers in all activities.
It would certainly be easier to have all patients on the same behavioral program and most would probably respond to some degree, however, Mary is invested in helping patients get better and is always willing to spend the extra time to really get to know patients and how to best motivate them to be successful. Her work does not go unnoticed by patients or their parents, as I frequently hear positive feedback and appreciation regarding Mary's dedication to help Make Life Better for Children!
Mary is very creative and attentive to details and is able to figure out what strategies will work best. For example, many times patients are motivated to earn privilege time to play video games, but for other patients, it can be more complicated. We recently had a 5-yr-old autistic patient with eating difficulties who was only motivated to take bites of new foods when he could use an ipad to play shape games as a reward. Mary was able to figure this out during her interactions with the patient and he began to eat solid foods for the first time using this approach.
Another example of caring practice demonstrated by Mary is with a teenage girl who has a chronic eating disorder and was recently here on her sixth admission. It is extremely difficult to motivate this patient and she can also have a negative impact on the therapeutic milieu. Mary was able to work with this patient and develop a "reflection program" which involved this patient having to earn time with her peers. The patient had to be able to eat her food and be respectful of others in order to earn having her meals in the dining area with her peers. The patient was quick to let us all know that she would never participate in "that stupid plan", but within a short time, was able to "earn" her way out of the reflection program and join her peers in all activities.
It would certainly be easier to have all patients on the same behavioral program and most would probably respond to some degree, however, Mary is invested in helping patients get better and is always willing to spend the extra time to really get to know patients and how to best motivate them to be successful. Her work does not go unnoticed by patients or their parents, as I frequently hear positive feedback and appreciation regarding Mary's dedication to help Make Life Better for Children!