Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Home Health Revealed, where we share real stories from industry leaders about home health, palliative and hospice care brought to you by Velocity. Grow your home health or hospice agency with the power of Velocity. Velocity's easy to read coding and revenue cycle dashboards let you grab your cup of coffee and quickly see the health of your organization. Welcome to this episode of Home Health Revealed. I have such a special episode for you today. We've been so excited about this segment and as you guys have heard from Lisa Von Lemden from the OCH as well as other representative organizations, she is super active within this home care space. When she came to me and we talked about doing Heroes of Home Care, I was super excited. Could not wait to talk and learn from the people who are really out there, boots on the ground, in the field. And so today we have the first episode here for you.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I'm Lisa von Lemden, executive director of the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice. Home care is more than a profession, it's a calling. Every day, caregivers across the country step into the homes of those who need them the most, bringing not just medical expertise, but compassion, comfort, and hope. This special series of Home Health Revealed is sponsored by the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice and honors the real heroes of home care. Through these episodes, you'll hear real stories from the field. Some are funny, some will warm your heart, and some will break it. But every single one reveals the dedication, resilience and humanity of those working on the front lines of home care. These are the moments that matter. These are the real stories, and these are the real heroes of home care.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Lisa Von Lemden and I have the pleasure of wearing two hats. I'm not only the executive director of the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice, but I'm also one of the owners of Lux Healthcare at Home. And much like Hannah said, when we started talking about a concept of really telling the stories of what actually occurs out in the community, Mary was one of the first nurses that came to my mind because I've known Mary since 2016.
We've worked together on and now for almost 10 years. And I want to hand it over to Mary to introduce herself. She is a nurse case manager with Lux out in Lorain County.
But Mary, if you want to talk a little bit about who you are and what you do and when you came into home health, that would be phenomenal. And then we can kind of go ahead and get started talking about what's really actually happening behind Closed doors.
[00:02:24] Speaker D: Yes. So I was just talking with Amy about this earlier about how I got into home health care. I was a shift nurse. I like night shift nurse because that's how every new nurse has to start off night shift. I was a float nurse. So I got the worst of the worst. You know, I was, like, transferring a patient up to, like, critical care. And I remember I was walking out just, like, defeated, and there was a case manager sitting there, and she was like, mayor, you should reach out to my friend Amy Ruffner. She works at this home care called Ideal. I just think you would really like it. Like, I think you would, like, thrive. And I was like, I don't know. Taking care of more than. I can't even take care of my four to six people here. We mean 30 people. She's like, no, it's, like, really cool if you go to their homes. It's more personal. She's like, I just think you would thrive in that environment.
And I was like, all right, I'll give it a shot. And everyone kept telling me that is the worst place to go. That's where all the lazy nurses go. Like, home care is terrible. That's where you go to retire. That's what I heard. You know, I'm here and it's been like eight years.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Did you retire?
[00:03:22] Speaker D: No.
Now I think I'll retire doing this, though. I really do. I love it. Home care is just.
It's amazing. I love it.
That's how I ended up.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: What was your experience when you jumped in? Like, what were your thoughts? What was it like going from having those four to six patients in a hospital setting to managing remote locations?
[00:03:45] Speaker D: You don't. You don't do it all at one time. You know, like, you slowly build your caseload. Four to six patients in hospital felt like an assembly line. You know, here's your pills, onto the next one. You had to have a certain number of patients to where you could even, like, qualify for an aid. Your patients, you had six people that were like, full people. They all required bed, baths, Changes, dementia, They're throwing themselves. And I mean, it was. It was.
It was crazy, the things that I got to see in a hospital. Grateful for the experience, but I'm so glad I went to home care. And you build your caseload. So I think, like, the first week you have like five or 10 people, and then the next week, you know, you just. You kind of. They kind of give it to you as you go along. And I. I don't know, you build a rapport with them, they become like family.
So I didn't start with, like, from going from, like, 6 to 30, but you built it up and.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Well, you're making it sound. You're making it sound glamorous.
I'm sure there are challenges, though. Can you talk about some of those challenges that you faced and what you've done?
[00:04:53] Speaker D: You can easily get burnt out. Like, you can easily take on other people's problems. Maybe that's a me thing. I don't know. I don't know. But because they become family, you know, I'm like, oh, no, Mr. So and so's cat. Like, he has to go to the vet today. I hope he makes it, because that's, like, his world, right? And then you're, like, praying for this random cat that you just met. Like, it is you. You can easily take a lot of their problems home with you. And then when you first start, probably for the first, like, couple of years, you take a lot of charting home with you. And it kind of like, I didn't have children then or, like, a marriage or anything, so I guess it really didn't bother me as much because I could lay in bed and watch TV and finish my charting, you know, but take over your life easily. I can see how people get burnt out with it. So that's probably the not so glamorous part of home care. Yeah.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Feel like you've come to balance that better. And what have you done to balance that better?
[00:05:49] Speaker D: Maybe I had a child and I realized that there's more to life than just work. My direct manager, Amy, you know, she likes your documentation and, you know, within 24 hours and admission should not take you any more than 48 hours. But she's so understanding. Like, life just as. Do the best you can. Time management becomes better. You only have eight hours in a day, you know, and I think that not making your schedule two fold where you can't get that documentation done by the end of the day. I really do feel like having Remy kind of made me, like, really prioritize my time. But, like, okay, you can't spend an hour and a half with this person talking about, you know, you're gonna see him again twice, two more times this week. Maybe we can save that conversation for, like, Wednesday and Friday, little things like that.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: So I will say Mary is.
I mean, Mary has come a long way. I mean, having known her for as long as we have, you know, I mean, it's. It used to be all consuming. And since she did have the baby and, you know, we Preach this all the time, whether it's at the council or at our private agencies. You know, bedside documentation, closing out your day before you go home. Mary's mastered it and done it in such a way where she really does become the example for the new nurses that we're hiring, because she. She is that. That flexibility and autonomy that we're talking about. She is a mom come 4:30 at night, you know, for the rest of the evening. And she's. She's done it really well. So I think she's kind of proof that it can be done and really sort of epitomizes what I think, you know, home health nurses should be. If you are looking for that type of flexibility.
Kudos to mar.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Time management is huge in every aspect of life.
And I think also what you're describing is being present in those compartmentalized times so that you're doing that documentation, timely meeting with that patient, doing as much by the bedside, but also engaging so that it's meaningful documentation. And then, you know, you're sitting in your car right now. I imagine there are many days you head back to your car and finish up some notes and have to finalize those thoughts before you move on to what's next so that you can be, again, fully there.
I want to switch gears a little bit and maybe get a little more detailed and personal, if you're okay with that.
I want to know if there is a particular patient or family that has really impacted you as a nurse. A lasting impression.
[00:08:22] Speaker D: There's like, too many to count.
There is too many to count.
And they've passed on. You know, they've passed on, but yeah. And not a lasting impression. Like, I think that's the thing with, like, nursing too, is that, like, it's never.
I think a lot of times in life, we look at, like, what people can do for us. You know what I mean? Like, it's like an exchange, you know, I hate to.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Some things are like, transactions.
[00:08:56] Speaker D: Yeah. But, like, that's what I love about nursing, is that you get to literally be like, I had a guy every Friday when I got paid, it was Maple Twist Friday. We went. I went to the local Dollar General and we sat at his kitchen counter and we went through the news and our favorite movies. His wedding album.
Love that man to death. Brings me to tears when I talk about it. Loved him to death.
Another lady in North Ridgeville. I had her meet my niece and nephews. I mean, it just so, so much outside of, like, you know what I mean? Like, what we do is actually home care. You build relationships with people and they just.
They touch your life. I recently had a patient that had passed away. I still talk to the wife to this day. He's been gone for four months. I make it a priority to call her every two weeks to talk to her, just to tell her I miss her and I'm thinking of her, you know what I mean? And just she has shared with me some of the deepest, darkest secrets of their marriage that nobody knew, which is like, they trust you. They.
I don't know. It's just beautiful. Like, I don't know if this is.
This is going dark on me, but hopefully you guys are still there.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we're still here. And we can still see you.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: I mean, so I grew up in Lorraine County. I grew up in Lorraine when I was younger. And so there can be a lot of different pockets of people.
Language barriers.
How do you deal with some of. Some of those maybe challenges? I don't know. How do you view that?
[00:10:31] Speaker D: They are challenging at times. They are so challenging in home care. There are a lot of social detriments of health. And it takes the language barrier. I don't know that that aside from like an interpreter.
It's hard.
It's hard to edit. I will. I think it's incredibly hard to educate those patients. They're stuck in their ways a lot of times. Like, it's kind of like a patient that has like a wound, like a diabetic ulcer, and it's like to the bone, and they're like, well, in the back in the day, we just used to leave it open to air, to heal. And you're like, it's hard. You try to put like a social worker on the case and get all of these things, like, going for them.
And then whether there's like a cognitive deficit or, like educational deficit, like, they don't follow through on those resources and it's. It's hard. I think that that's. That's challenging too. Yeah.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: What do you feel like is a time or maybe a story where you feel like you made the biggest difference in someone's life physically?
However you want to. Yeah. However you want to take it.
[00:11:36] Speaker D: We can go that route.
There was most recently, probably like six months after I joined Luck, first time ever doing home care where this happened.
We were sitting at the table with a brand new patient, brand new admission, you know, was running late that I was thinking about this story today. I was running late for this patient specifically. Okay. You know why I was running Late because Remy decided to take off her diaper and play in her poop for the first time and only time she's ever done that. So I remember calling this patient on the way there, and I'm like, you know, hey, so? And so I'm.
I'm running behind, and she's, oh, sweetie, please take your time to get here safely. You know, one of those sweeties that we take care of. And I get there, and I always think, like, had Remy not been playing in her poop, would I have been there 20 minutes earlier, 20 minutes later? Would I have missed this whole situation? So, but we're sitting at the table and we're talking, and all of a sudden she's like, I feel dizzy, you know? And then she just, like, eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she just went, like. She just, like, went out.
And I'm thinking, like, she's a diabetic. She has seizures. Like, I was almost at the end of my start of care, you know, I was thinking, like, what do I. You know, in the hospital, you can, like, call on people. You can hit a code button, right? But at home, you're all alone. And let me tell you, that whole CPR they teach you, like, kind of goes out the window.
Like, I just was like, but, like, she has a Paul. So, like, what? You know, we're at, like, this. This table that's, like, really high. This, like, breakfast bar table. And it was like, I call 91 1, put it on speakerphone, and by this time, her face had fallen forward, and she's doing this whole, like, breathing. And I'm, like, tapping her external, rubbing her, all the things I know how to do, holding her up with one arm and one leg. And the lady on the phone was like, I need you to get her on the floor and start chest compressions, you know, And I had, like, this much room between, like, you know, that it's never ideal. It's never an ideal situation. And there's the stove and there's a table. I get her on the floor somehow, by the grace of God, get her on the floor.
And I think, like, three or four chest compressions then. And our lovely lady woke up, and she's like, what am I doing on the floor? I'm like, I don't know. What are you doing to me? You're scaring me.
But so I think that situation, I don't really know that I would call it, like, saving her life. I think just right time, right place. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, so I. I thank goodness for Remy playing in her poop that day because. Yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: Of all the things.
[00:14:03] Speaker D: Of all the things. Yeah. I don't know.
So she.
But she went to the hospital. She came back. She came back to us, and all was well with her, and she's still well. She was out swinging on her swing about two weeks ago. I drove by.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Oh, you did?
See, you just check up on these people. They make a friend for life. I love that always.
[00:14:23] Speaker D: Yeah. Oh, I'm at funerals. I'm like, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Do you go to the funerals of people that you've taken care of?
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Mm, yeah.
Yeah.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: That. Does that feel. Does that feel heavy for you?
[00:14:40] Speaker D: It feels like an honor that I got to be this little back in their life. You know.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: I'm sure that that means so much to a family.
When you're grieving and you see a familiar face, especially a familiar face that's, like, recent, that's been in your home that, you know, somebody has really cared about, the person that, you know, you're. You're burying. You're laying to rest. You're putting to rest a legacy, and then you are just. Just to give that person, just to give you.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: A hug, I'm sure, is. It brings so much comfort.
[00:15:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Thank you for being that. I just. Having walked through those kinds of things somewhat recently, I can just imagine what that. What that means.
And, you know, in doing that, I talked about the legacy of someone who has passed. But in doing all of this, you are building a legacy, a legacy of care, a legacy for Remy to be able to see the care that you give people and the care that you give her.
And I'm sure you bring things home. I'm sure you take on some of that mental stress. Mental care, because really, a lot of stress just comes from the things that we do really care about. And so, you know, you get to do that. And I'm sure she sees who you are as a person and the way you're building the community around you by caring about the people around you just sounds like you're doing such an awesome job, and it's very evident, so thank you.
[00:16:15] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Lisa, what. What other questions would you like to ask?
[00:16:22] Speaker C: I don't think I have any more questions. I think I just want to say thank you to Mary. I mean, we're. We're a couple of days late off of nurses week here, but, you know, she really does exemplify what a community nurse should look like. I mean, you know, you've heard her.
It's not like we go in and provide care for an hour here and there for a couple of weeks. You know, I mean, in home and community based services, it's so much more than that. Right. We do become extensions of family and we do find ourselves going over and above and praying for cats and doing all the things. And, you know, I mean, this is the future of healthcare right here. And, and I think that if everybody can take a look at what Mary has the opportunity to experience every day, but also what Mary gives to every one of her patients every day, you know, this is what, this is what bedside nursing truly means. And, and Mary's the perfect example. And that's why, you know, I thought she would be the perfect person to kind of kick this off because she is truly a real hero of home care.
So thank you for what you do, Mary.
[00:17:26] Speaker D: Thank you, Mary.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: One last question.
If there is somebody who is considering entering the field of nursing, of home care specifically, what advice would you give them?
[00:17:44] Speaker D: Do it. Do it.
If you're doing home care specifically. Yeah. If you're going to do nursing, do it.
You know, they say if, like you're gonna say something, say it with your whole chest, do it with your whole heart, your whole being.
Don't do it for a paycheck because we.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Yes.
