By Sindy Gutierrez, APRN, FNP-BC
Sometimes, it's easier than you think to go that extra mile to help your patient. And it may inspire you to embark on a project that can help many more patients on the road ahead.
As a fellow in the Advanced Practice Provider Hematology/Oncology Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, FL, I was spending the day observing procedures in the comprehensive treatment unit. I walked into a patient's room to get consent. She was a young woman with short, dark hair that I could tell was slowly growing back after she had lost it to chemotherapy. I complimented her hair, saying the style suited her. She deflated a bit, pointed to her hair, and sadly said, "Oh, this? This is nothing. This is the best I can grow out now after treatment. I used to have long, luscious hair. I loved how I looked. I really miss it."
I could tell that I had struck a sore spot, so I asked if she had tried using wigs. She said she had, but “they didn’t look right on me; they felt itchy and cheap.” She told me she was a mom of two young children and couldn't spend money to buy nice wigs.
“Well, have you gone to receive your complimentary wig here?” I asked.
She looked at me incredulously. “What are you talking about?” she said.
I explained that patients at Sylvester are entitled to receive one complimentary wig per year while on treatment that causes hair loss or thinning. She was shocked and said that this was the first time she heard about this benefit. She wanted to learn more, so I quickly put in a referral to meet with the wig specialist.
She returned to the unit two weeks later. We talked about how she was doing, and she explained how her last scan showed that she's responding to treatment. Finally, I asked my burning question: “Did you end up seeing the wig specialist?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, and she just came by!” My patient pulled out a box and held up the beautiful wig she selected. She was absolutely beaming. “Thank you so much,” she said. “I finally have a nice wig that I actually like. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
While I was becoming overwhelmed with joy, she added, “I can't believe I didn't know about this. More people need to know!”
And that’s when it dawned on me: This is a need that we should be focusing on. This patient, this encounter, this success are what led me to conduct a a quality improvement project to raise patients’ awareness of cancer support services.
I am sharing my story to encourage nurses to really listen to your patients. It is so easy to just go about your day, crossing off your to-do list and hoping everything goes smoothly. But if you make a small effort to start a conversation with a patient or give a compliment like I did, you never know how it might lead you to create a lasting impact. I was able to help this patient feel good, and all I had to do was point her in the right direction. In return, she also sparked the flame that set off the topic for my quality improvement project that has raised awareness of cancer support services for many more patients like this one.
ONS member Sindy Gutierrez, APRN, FNP-BC, is an inpatient/research advanced practice RN at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, FL.