| Recipient: | Robyn Anderson, APRN, BC-PC |
|---|---|
| Job Title: | Coordinator, Palliative Care Program |
| Employer: | James J. Peters VA Medical Center |
| Nominated by: | Susan Cohen, PhD |
|---|---|
| Title: | Medical Director of Palliative Care |
| Employer: | James J. Peters VA Medical Center |
A 50 year old Viet Nam veteran with end stage prostate cancer, writhing in pain in the ER – does he call for his oncologist, his primary physician or a pain management specialist? No. He calls out for "Robyn" by name.
A veteran with a long troubled past including polysubstance abuse now has end stage myelodysplastic syndrome. While he is guarded with most staff he confides that he "doesn't know how to die" – he confides this to Robyn.
Mr. D is an elderly veteran with end stage lung cancer, cared for in our unit until his last weeks when he decides to go home to die. Intricate plans are arranged. When one medication is left out of the pharmacy bag, someone drives to his home 30-40 miles north of the hospital to hand deliver the much needed medication – that someone was Robyn.
There are countless examples of compassion, dedication, problem solving and skill that occur every day in the health care field but few examples of people going above and beyond, of people who make that personal connection which families and patients value and remember. Robyn has an ability to make these personal connections with some of the most challenging patients and perhaps this is one of her most remarkable talents. In a VA hospital where many of our patients suffer with mental illness, it isn't always easy to connect. Robyn has been able to connect with challenging patients, those with who most staff cannot. She has been able to peel away the layers of aggression, personality disorders, and mental illness to show many of us on the team the person and soul inside who needs our help. This is where she adds the most value. This is art in nursing.
I am thinking of Mr. H, a relatively young man dying of advanced AIDS - the entire hospital staff knows him because he has spent much of the last year there and he has spent much of it being unpleasant and abusive to the nursing staff. He cannot be placed in long-term care because his behaviors are known to the local nursing homes. His family declines to take him on because he is abusive to them too. He is accepted to our supportive care/hospice unit. There he stays until he passes away about 1 month later. There, an incredible transformation takes place.
Robyn is firm and sets limits, knowing just how far she can go with Mr. H. Many of us on the team are reluctant to give in to some of his demands, knowing how manipulative he can be. But Robyn persists, setting limits and indulging him with the right balance. It is art, not science, and it is certainly what sets people apart in the health care field. Over the last month of his life Mr. H is able to attend to end-of-life tasks, which many people never get to - reconciliation with family, forgiveness, and life review. He was able to do things that no one thought he could. Robyn saw the potential and led the patient, family and team on this incredible transformational journey. We all recall this case as one of the greatest challenges but one of the biggest success stories. This journey was led by the compassion and skill of Robyn.
Finally, Robyn is an incredible champion for her discipline of nursing. She often speaks proudly of how she was accepted to medical and nursing school and how her decision to attend nursing school was so clear for her. She is so devoted to her field and she often advocates for nurses and for nursing in general in our facility. We work together on an interdisciplinary team that includes nursing, medicine, chaplaincy, social work, among other disciplines, and I have learned so much about nursing from Robyn. While medical training may teach us how to do a physical exam and prescribe medications, medical training sadly does not often focus on the value and contribution of the other health care disciplines with which we work closely. It is from Robyn that I learned the value of interdisciplinary teamwork and its contribution to the well being of patients.
You will receive many applications for this award. But I can assure you that none will represent a nurse who brings so much pride, skill, compassion and art to the care of dying veterans and the profession of nursing as Robyn Anderson.
