Care never takes a holiday. Nurses working the ER or ICU know it.
So do telephone triage nurses for telephone triage companies or clinical answering services.
Whether they are working after-hours or daytime, holiday schedules are intense. Nurse burnout is causing some to leave the healthcare industry. But how can telehealth RNs, chronic care management (CCM) professionals, and other healthcare delivery staff be treated special this holiday season?
1. Family Members Gifts: Flexibility, Pampering
“A 90-minute massage-and a babysitter” signals appreciation, says an ICU RN from the Central United States whose family gifted her and her significant other with massages and complimentary childcare on their mutual day off.
Others say flexibility and love from friends and family count most.
Retired Emergency Room nurse Karen Nold of Conyers, Ga., treasures a decades-old gift of flexibility.
Nold completed her Christmas Eve shift in blizzardy Yankton, South Dakota when the roads shut down for an entire week.
Going back on the clock, she busied herself administering medications, responding to patient calls, and conducting other crucial ER nurse’s work assignments.
Her husband and son lovingly hand-shoveled the quarter-mile driveway and postponed Christmas until her weary return. Decades later, the sight of a snow shovel signals love.
2. Patient Gifts: Calls, Letters, Inspiration
CareXM Director of Nursing Kristy Fisher, RN, says her greatest holiday gifts include tributes from terminal patients who passed on. Many terminal patients have tenderly, appreciatively credited her by name in their obits. She pinned these to bulletin boards for frequent reflection.
Feeling appreciated is a treasured gift for those, like Fisher, providing chronic care management.
Jessica Johannes, BSN, OCN, from Grand Junction, Colo., says her favorite gift comes from observing, interacting with, and being inspired by her patients’ strength.
“Cancer patients look forward to holiday milestones. ‘Just one last Christmas’ is often uttered.”
She reflects, “I absorb and embrace this fervor for life. I want to live and thrive instead of just getting through the day. “
3. Gifts for the Medical Office: Ease, Relief, Productivity
Home-Health, Hospice, and Hospital administrators appreciate the hybrid model of CareXM’s RNs plus RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) systems technology.
“Don’t tell us that ‘you care’ or that we are ‘heroes,’” says Fisher. “Show us that you care” Fisher’s staff of 100 high-quality, 24/7/365 telephone triage nurses seek to answer on the first ring.
Their expertise, augmented by the CareXM RPM program, saves holiday-frazzled patients and care givers up to 30 minutes on a single call.
The benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring and real-time, qualified RNs are gifts for patients, for care givers, and for organizations like Goshen and Providence. These best-of-breed health systems consider CareXM true partners.
Enlightened administrators gift themselves with such comprehensive care plans relying on telehealth. Improving Medicare.gov’s “Hospice Compare” scores or CAHPS scores 10% would be a great gift for all team members.
4. Spiritual Gifts: Religious, of Nature or Otherwise
Health care providers honor the connection between spirituality and care. Books, audio subscriptions, cards, and even a simple text are much-needed.
Consider the joy of this simple, heart-felt message: “Make sure to enjoy the sunshine – even if only from a window.”
These are appreciated thoughts for clinicians, telehealth management, floor nurses in new-born wards, RN-staffed hospice triage, or social workers.
5. Self-Care Gifts: Whitney Houston Had It Right
Gifting oneself is, indeed “The Greatest Love of All.” Oncology nurse Johannes turns to holiday “crafting” for coping with death as a constant.
While her crafting talent is significant, she does not focus on perfection. “Perfection is not the answer,” she thoughtfully reflects.
Johannes has incorporated completing an annual holiday puzzle as a way for her family to celebrate. “It’s not about the puzzle but the conversation that occurs putting it together that makes it so special and so memorable.”
It’s December – Get Gifting Real Time!
A puzzle is the situation and opportunity for healthcare providers and staffs. Participating in, contributing to, and solving that puzzle is, in its own way, a gift.
Solving this puzzle yields best outcomes for patients, care givers, healthcare teams, and our overall health as a nation and world.
Happiest of Holidays from CareXM!
Stay safe, keep others safe.
Love and be loved.
And… Care.