I am submitting this nomination on behalf of a mother whose child was in the NICU for almost four months. If she could have written this nomination, she would have.
This mother spoke only Spanish, was not literate with language or numbers, a woman who had had very few educational opportunities in her life. She had a child with multiple anomalies who would require very complex medical care for the first few years of her life. Melodye Becker was the primary nurse for this patient and family for much of their lengthy stay. Melodye knew from the beginning that discharge teaching would be extremely challenging for this mother and committed herself to find a way to help her grasp and replicate the skills that she would need to care for her daughter at home. Other members of the healthcare team were concerned that this mother lacked the capacity to care for her child with her educational and language limitations and had struggled to do teaching with this mother on the days when Melodye was not working. Interpreters had expressed their frustration with this mother, noting that her level of vocabulary in her own language was limited.
Seeing how much this mother loved her child, Melodye decided to get very creative. To teach this mother about temperature, she made a list of possible temperatures that the child might have and taught the mother how to recognize the numbers as symbols. Even though this mother could not read numbers, she learned to recognize the temperatures on Melodye’s chart as symbols. Before long, she was able to recognize when the thermometer displayed one of the temperature readings that was concerning and gave the appropriate response of action.
As Melodye was teaching the mother about cleaning the patients gastric tube supplies after feeding her, Melodye attentively noticed that the mother didn’t really understand what kind of plain soap to buy at the supermarket to use to wash out the tube. So on her way home from work that night, Melodye stopped at the market, bought the unscented soap, and brought it to the hospital to give to the mother. The mother expressed her gratitude to Melodye for going above and beyond, and she said to me, “Now I know what to buy when I go to the store. I’ll just look for this bottle or show it to the store clerk.”
To teach the mother about the medications that she would need to give the patient, Melodye color coded all of her medications and used symbols to distinguish them instead of names knowing that the mother couldn’t read. She then made a chart with the symbols of when each medication was to be given. For the medications given by g-tube, Melodye labeled a bag full of syringes with medical tape to indicate the amount that would need to be given for each dose. Before long, the mother was able to demonstrate full understanding of the complex medical routine that she would follow at home.
The final challenge was figuring out a way to help the mother with the numerous doctors’ appointments that she would need to make and keep post discharge. Creative Melodye went to Hobby Lobby, bought a calendar for the mother and a monkey stamp and ink pad. (She couldn’t find a stamp of a baby.) She made a chart using the monkey stamp of all the different specialists that the patient would need to see post discharge, marking on the monkey the part of the body that the specialist would follow. For example, Melodye circled the eyes on the monkey to indicate the ophthalmologist, drew a heart on another monkey to indicate the cardiologist and so on. (The patient had over nine specialists who would be following her post discharge.) Then she took the calendar and stamped the monkey (drawing or marking the body part on the monkey) on the days in which the patient had an appointment. The mother had no problem identifying each specialty with the symbols that Melodye created and was now prepared to alert her husband when the patient had an upcoming appointment.
On many occasions, this mother expressed to me her extreme gratitude for the respect and dignity that Melodye gave her and for the patience that Melodye had with her, and for the ways that Melodye went above and beyond to ensure that she really understood the complex care of her daughter. When the patient was discharged from the hospital, this mother left with her head held high, her calendar in hand, her temperature chart, and her dignity intact. By empowering this mother, Melodye also assured that this patient would receive the best care possible in a very challenging home environment.
As a chaplain, it was honor to work with Melodye with this mother. Her creativity, her attention to detail, and her consistent dignified, respectful treatment of this mother were inspiring. She is, by virtue of her compassion, nominated for the DAISY Award.