Noel's clinical skills and especially her compassionate care exemplify the kind of quality-of-care that the veteran population has been seeking from the VA Medical System for a long time.
As a Substance Use Disorder (SUD), alcohol recovery patient in the SARRTP program, I was diagnosed with a case of the flu and transferred to the 4 West Nurses Station for treatment and placed in quarantine.
From the start, Nurse Noel seemed to have locked on to an innate sense of my alcohol recovery anxieties and, to some extent, the possible stressors of the quarantine on my PTSD.
During my quarantine, this excellent nurse was very understanding of my unique circumstances and leveraged her insight to ensure that I felt like she focused on the holistic me and engaged me with anxiety soothing personal conversations and clearly articulated explanations of medical procedures.
In addition, Noel was able to leverage her CGVAMC nursing pledge and skillsets to embrace my struggle with PTSD and let me know that, during the course of her individual work shifts, she was nearby and that I would be safe during the quiet late night hours. This guardian angel approach allowed me to mellow out my PTSD triggers and calm myself to a point where I could get some mind and body refreshing rest and focus on recovering from the flu, as well as my addiction.
With that said, for me, the entire 4 West Nurses Station medical team of the Charles George VA Medical Center, and Nurse Noel especially, have embraced the concepts and pillars of success embodied in Continuous Quality Improvement of patient care. Thank you, Nurse Noel.