October 2010
Cissy
Bailey
,
RN
5N
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER
Jackson
,
MS
United States

 

 

 

The patient was discharged from the hospital after having a total hip surgery and waiting at the entrance for his wife to pick him up. She was unable to start her car. The discharge nurse called this nurse and asked her what to do. She was instructed to bring the patient back to the unit and let him wait in a room while he made arrangements for his car. When the wrecker arrived it could not get into parking garage. The patient thought if he could get to his car he could get it started. This nurse helped the patient and his wife gather their belongings and she pushed him in the wheelchair to his car on the top level of parking garage A. He was not able to start the car. This nurse then took them to the drug store in her personal vehicle so he could fill his prescriptions. As the patient was talking, she realized he was a diabetic and had not had anything to eat since lunch, so she took them to get something to eat before taking them to their hotel (they were from the Delta). When they arrived at the hotel, reservations for a handicap access room had not been made. This nurse changed his reservations to meet his needs, helped he and his wife to the room, set up his bedside commode, and helped him into bed. She got home that night at 9:30 p.m. She called and checked on him the next day. The patient called her when they arrived home to let her know they got home ok.