“Welcome the Patient”

Dehradun, India – Liliana Vazquez Giffen, ReSurge associate director of marketing and communications

Every morning when we arrive at the hospital, the team hits the ground running. I imagine a starting gun going off in everyone’s mind and the race begins. OR nurses prepare the instruments for the upcoming surgeries, anesthesiologists set up equipment and medications, the pediatrician rounds to evaluate the progress of the patients who received surgery the previous day and the PACU nurses organize the recovery room.   

Today, while walking by the PACU, I heard Faruk (pictured left), one of the local nurses working with us, saying “welcome the patient,” “welcome the patient,” as he folded a blanket over the hospital bed and his fellow nurse colleagues watched. He then intricately folded the blanket into a nice design. “My nursing professor taught me how to do this,” he explained. “We must welcome the patient,” he continued. I thought it was a lovely way to show our patients just how much we care for them.

I find it inspirational that this team of people who have never met the patients--some of our team members have never even set foot in India before--care so deeply about them. I hear our team members discuss cases and the best way to provide high quality surgical care. With every stitch, every bandage, every medication, they show they care. Sometimes, smaller details demonstrate that sentiment even further. The gentle pat on a worried parent’s back or a nicely folded blanket in the PACU all show that we care. Each team member, in his or her own way, in the words of Faruk, “welcomes the patient.” 

Comments

[VeeRoo]

This is great work the team is doing! So many more people are being trained, hope they carry the same values back to their place of work replicate all the good things that are being done at Dehradun!