Embodying Care, Compassion, and Communication [Tammy Snyder]

In this video, Tammy shares her experience receiving care at Brookings Health System after a sudden health challenge with her cochlear implants. The story emphasizes the importance of compassionate communication, personalized attention, and coordinated treatment in ensuring patient safety and emotional well-being.

  • Compassionate and calming staff: Nurses and providers helped reduce fear and anxiety while explaining procedures and next steps.
  • Safe inpatient care: The team identified high fall risk and provided appropriate interventions, including physical therapy and home safety equipment.
  • Comprehensive treatment: Care included managing severe vertigo, physical therapy, and supportive measures to regain strength and independence.
  • Personalized attention: Providers engaged patients in decision-making and addressed all concerns, ensuring trust and comfort.
  • Human touch matters: Simple gestures, like a pat on the hand or friendly greeting, contributed to emotional support and healing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Compassionate care involves addressing both the physical and emotional needs of patients. It includes empathy, active listening, patient education, and reassurance to reduce stress during hospitalization.

Clear communication ensures patients understand their condition, treatment options, and recovery plan. It fosters trust, helps patients participate in decision-making, and improves overall satisfaction and outcomes.

Providers assess risk factors, such as mobility limitations or fall history, and implement interventions like physical therapy, walkers, shower chairs, and close monitoring to prevent accidents and promote safe recovery.

Physical therapy helps patients regain strength, mobility, and independence after illness or injury. In Tammy’s case, it included guided walking, stair navigation, and exercises to restore confidence and function.

Through consistent caring, compassion, and communication—what Tammy calls the “three C’s of nursing”—providers build trust by listening, explaining treatments, answering questions, and offering human connection.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Tammy. I am from Arlington. We live on a farm just south of Arlington, and I'm a retired nurse.

What brought you to the emergency room?

I had cochlear implants and was doing very well. That was on a Tuesday. I woke up Saturday morning at home and was having a lot of problems, extreme vertigo. I couldn't even open my eyes. It was so bad. And trying to get me up was not in the cards. So my husband called the ambulance. They came and got me and brought me to the Brookings ER. And I am so glad they did.

How was your experience with the ER staff?

The nursing staff and everybody, they were great because I was scared that having just the new implant, that this was causing the problem, which it was, but I was afraid they were going to have to take it out. To get to the point of needing one of those, you are basically deaf, even with hearing aids. The fact that this was going to give me my hearing back, it was scary to think I was going to lose it. And one of the things that made me feel better almost that quick was that they were very...they were calming, they were compassionate, they were caring. They were taking care of me, not just physically, but emotionally. And they were so good at being calming and "It's okay, everything's going to be fine. Your implant looks good. Everything looks good. We're going to do some tests."

Why did CNP Abbie Entringer admit you to inpatient care?

When Abbie and my husband tried to stand me up, I couldn't. I couldn't stand up by myself. And they just looked at each other and she said, "She cannot go home." Being older and having some of the health problems I have, I am a high fall risk. And yes, I've fallen and broken bones. I don't need that anymore. I don't need to do that. They looked at me and said, "Wait a minute, this is not safe for her to go home. We need to get her safe. What do we need to do it?" And she hooked me up with physical therapy.

What was your treatment?

The problem, what I came in with, was the severe vertigo due to inflammation. Once we got that under control, it was just getting me strong enough to get back. They had physical therapy work with me and they got me up, walking with the walker and stuff like that. And she...the physical therapists were fantastic. So I stayed another night. But that night, the aids or the patient care techs, they helped me get up and they helped me walk around. And we walked and I was going to get my strength back. I was going to do what I had to do. And by golly, by the next day when she came in, I said, "I'm ready." And we got up and we walked further than I had the whole time, and was able to get up and down the stairs. When I went home, I was much safer. And yes, they made sure that I had a walker at home, which I did, and a shower chair and everything that would keep me safe. And we had everything in place so I went home and did fantastic.

How was your experience with the staff?

I had Abbie CNP. She was amazing. She answered all my questions. She alleviated so many fears. Even as a nurse with 30-plus years of experience, when you're a patient, it's completely different. She was always, "Is there anything else I can do for you? What about your other meds?" And we'd go throughout...went through everything. There wasn't anything that she didn't know or that I wasn't afraid to even tell her. You know, this is how it is. So easy to talk to. You know, that's been one of the big things I've noticed too about the Brookings Health System is that everybody is easy to talk to.

What was your impression of hospitalist, Dr. Leadabrand?

She is amazing. She has such a positive, sunny disposition to begin with. She likes to sit and listen to you. If there's any concern, she will sit there and discuss it with you. She just won't get up and make the decision on her own. She makes the decision with you. She knew exactly what needed to be done. And she was...I just can't believe how nice and friendly and cheerful. It was such a good experience. For being in the hospital, it was a very good experience. I can't stress that enough because it was amazing.

What did you appreciate most?

And I'm going to tell you, just from personal experience, this hospital, say, nobody wants to be in the hospital, but if you have to be, this is the place to be, made me feel so special. And I had never felt that before in a hospital before. But these people really made me feel special. They weren't afraid to say "Hi." They weren't afraid to say, "Hi, how you doing?" And that's very important. Even just a pat on the hand is very important. It's the fact that they... That's a human touch and people need that.

What are your three C's of nursing?

I always believe that as a professional, you should have an idea of what you see are the important elements that should be taken into consideration no matter what you're doing. For me, I have my three C's, and that's caring, compassion, and communication. With those three things, you can build that bond and you can build that trust with your patients or clients. There's been so many places I have been so disheartened by healthcare because of some of the changes I've seen where that's just thrown out. Everything has become about the bottom line. But being here, that caring, that compassion, that communication, it was embodied here. It was like they were reading my mind and understood how I felt about how healthcare really should be. This healthcare system just makes me feel good about healthcare again.

Are you one of Brookings Health System's grateful patients who would like to give back to us? Learn more about how you can give back at brookingshealth.org/MyThanks.

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