On the way to work one day, just over the rise in the hill, I came upon an accident. There was a truck in the road and traffic in the oncoming lane. There was no way to avoid it.
I crashed right into the truck that was in the road.
EMS was quickly on the scene. They placed me on a board with cervical collar and the works. As they were cutting off my clothes, the EMS tech noticed my WakeMed badge and went straight into praise:
Oh, my grandmother was recently in WakeMed hospital! They are so wonderful there! They were so attentive and listened to her and us like she was their only patient! We felt so welcomed there. When I wanted to spend the night no one said anything negative. They just fixed a place for me to sleep with all I needed right there in the room! You must be so proud to work there.
I told her I was proud to work at WakeMed.
It didn’t take long, and I was soon in the trauma bay at Duke. The nurse took my belongings to put in a bag, and she also noticed my WakeMed badge. She then also went into a rant of praise for WakeMed:
Oh, WakeMed! I was a patient in WakeMed not too long ago, and they were awesome! They really take the time to listen to you there.
By this time, Take 5 was going through my head. All of these people were so impressed with the time we take to listen.
Soon, I was taken off to radiology for a CT scan. The radiology tech there also had her experience with WakeMed! I was reminded all day long by Duke employees how great WakeMed had been to them with their experiences.
I made a promise to myself that I would let my coworkers know that Take 5 was working. It had been proven to me over and over again that day.
Keep up the good work, WakeMed. People are loving you!
-Suzan D. Jones, RN
*Suzan is a clinical nurse in 5A Med Intermediate Care at WakeMed Raleigh Campus.
About the Take 5 Program at WakeMed
The Take 5 program was designed by a nursing unit council to demonstrate the impact that nurses/staff can have in improving patient satisfaction and experiences.
With the “Take 5” concept, WakeMed nurses set aside time on each shift (five minutes) to sit with their patients to talk about non-task-related topics. Nurses are then encouraged to write a brief narrative about one of their experiences to be submitted each month for review.
For additional information about the Take 5 program at WakeMed, send us an email. Interested in a nursing career at WakeMed? Learn more here.
