WVU Healthcare employee uses his head to show patients he cares
It’s 2 a.m. on a Thursday morning at Ruby Memorial. The halls are dark and quiet, and patients throughout the hospital are getting much-needed sleep. Despite the late hour, the care of these patients is very much on the minds of the WVU Healthcare night staff, who are on duty from 10 p.m. – 7 a.m. Patient Care Sitter Jaime Ferrer-Bringas is one of these dedicated employees.
Jaime, who will turn 21 in just a few days, has worked the night shift at WVU Hospitals since October 2011. “I thought WVU Healthcare would be a great place to work to learn very valuable skills,” he said. I was interested in being a patient care sitter because I thought it would give me one on one time with a patient.”
A sitter’s primary duty is to ensure patient safety. Sitters are assigned to the rooms of patients who need extra observation or assistance while in the hospital. “Some of the patients are lonely,” Jaime said. “The company a sitter provides is as much a part of the job as taking care of patients.” Often, for patients who are in the hospital for a lengthy stay, the sitter becomes a friend.
That’s what happened, he says, when he was assigned to sit with a patient who was 13 years old and had been diagnosed with a very serious condition. “I was concerned about him,” Jaime said. “The boy was very quiet – probably because of the procedures he was going through and his general health. I was always there when he needed me, and gradually he opened up and started talking to me.”
Eventually Jaime was assigned to another patient, but he still maintained an interest in his young friend, often stopping by to visit. One day Jaime noticed that the boy, who had lost his hair due to his treatment, seemed a little down. The boy told Jaime he thought he looked bad without his hair. Jaime insisted that having hair was not so important, but he could tell the boy didn’t believe him.
“I wanted to show him a certain level of care. I wanted to give him hope during a very difficult time. I thought if I could show him that I understood what he was going through, that I was rooting for him, it might help. After all, I was 13 once, too.”
Jaime shaved his head.
He knew it had been worth it the next time he saw his friend. “I stuck my head around the door, and he got the biggest smile on his face. He said, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you actually did that.’” Jaime laughs at the memory. “I said, ‘I told you hair isn’t important!’”
The patient has since been discharged, and Jaime’s hair is growing back. He is hoping to become a WVU Healthcare clinical associate in the future. “I think I could help patients more,” he explains. “I always like to do everything I can. That’s always been my motto: Do more than you think you can do."
