Kids & Family
Nurse Connects With Patient After Recovering From COVID-19
A nurse, who had recently recovered from COVID-19, connected with a person with Down syndrome who also had the virus.
Press release from AtlantiCare:
July 2, 2020
Providers and staff throughout AtlantiCare have focused on making special connections with patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They include Samantha O’Brien, RN, BSN, team leader, Progressive Care Unit, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center (ARMC) Mainland Campus, of Mays Landing, New Jersey, and her colleagues. The unit was temporarily changed to be a respiratory care unit during the pandemic. It has cared for many patients who had COVID-19, including Joey Ortiz. Watch Joey’s story here.
“We have glass windows that allow us to see into rooms from the nursing station,” says O’Brien. “I could tell Joey seemed particularly lonely one day.” She adds because she’d recently recovered from COVID-19, she especially understood how isolated Joey might have felt.
“Since he was a person with Down syndrome, I knew it was hard for him to understand the visitor policy changes that we and other hospitals had temporarily implemented. I decided to draw some fun pictures on his window. He immediately brightened up.”
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Joey’s family says it is grateful for how the team treated Joey and kept them connected with him and his caregivers, including through FaceTime. “By the tone of his voice, I could tell he felt at home,” says his sister Norma Ortiz. “He was getting the attention that he wanted and he wasn’t scared. There was no fear in his voice. I knew that he was comfortable and taken care of.”
“Sam having just come out of being quarantined for COVID-19 herself, she was able to make a special connection with Joey,” says Beth Tieri, RN, clinical manager of the PCU. “It was really heartwarming.”
O’Brien has worked at ARMC for nine years, first as a medical assistant, then as a patient care technician, before becoming a nurse.
“We're used to caring for patients as if they are members of our own families,” she says. “It’s been our privilege to take this care to a whole new level.”
For more information about AtlantiCare, call the AtlantiCare Access Center at 1-888-569-1000; visit www.atlanticare.org; or find AtlantiCare on Facebook.
About AtlantiCare
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AtlantiCare is an integrated healthcare system based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, whose more than 6,000 staff, providers and volunteers serve the community in more than 100 locations in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May and Ocean counties of southern New Jersey. Its vision of building healthy communities together drives its mission of making a difference in health and healing, one person at a time, through caring and trusting relationships. A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner, AtlantiCare was also included in Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work. AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center was the 105th hospital in the nation to attain the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet™ designation in 2004 and earned redesignation in 2008, 2013, in 2018. Learn more at atlanticare.org or 1-888-569-1000.
This press release was produced by AtlantiCare. The views expressed here are the author's own.
