Patient Experience Week: Beth Cooper

Beth Coop­er is a cer­ti­fied reg­is­tered nurse anes­thetist (CRNA) at the QMG Surgery Cen­ter. Her job involves pro­vid­ing direct anes­the­sia care to patients for all the sur­gi­cal ser­vices pro­vid­ed at the surgery cen­ter. She shared more about what makes her time with patients special.

Rumor is that you are known as the ​“baby whis­per­er.” Why do you enjoy tak­ing care of pedi­atric patients?
​“I pro­vide anes­the­sia for patients of all ages, but the pedi­atric pop­u­la­tion has a spe­cial place in my heart. Surgery day for your lit­tle one can be such an anx­i­ety-induc­ing thing. I try my best to put par­ents at ease by explain­ing what to expect around surgery and anes­the­sia for their child. I also put the patient at ease by play­ing games with the old­er kids as they go to sleep or snug­gling and watch­ing car­toons with our younger patients. As a moth­er of a small child, I try to pro­vide the lev­el of com­fort and safe­ty that I would want for my own daughter.”

Why makes your time with patients spe­cial?
​“Going off to sleep for surgery can be such a scary thing for pedi­atric patients, espe­cial­ly when they’re too young to tru­ly grasp what is going on. I try my best to turn some­thing that could be anx­i­ety-induc­ing into a fun expe­ri­ence. We have a wag­on for the ride to the OR, scent­ed masks, spe­cial stick­ers, and even a bal­loon game we play while going off to sleep. See­ing a patient that was anx­ious in pre-op go off to sleep hap­py and com­fort­able is so special.”

What does pro­vid­ing a good patient expe­ri­ence mean to you?
​“I real­ize that each patient comes to this expe­ri­ence with dif­fer­ent anx­i­eties, fears, needs, and wants. I make a con­cert­ed effort to treat each patient as a unique indi­vid­ual and pro­vide each with the best lev­el of care that I can. I believe if patients are empow­ered with infor­ma­tion and feel that they are includ­ed in their care, much of the anx­i­ety around surgery and anes­the­sia can be alle­vi­at­ed. My favorite thing is when I have a pre­vi­ous­ly anx­ious patient that wakes up in the recov­ery room and can’t believe that their surgery is already over.”