Nurse’s hands convey care message

When an elderly patient asked Assouma Murekeyisoni to “be with me,” the UCHealth Memorial Hospital nurse understood the challenge of a seemingly simple request.

As a charge nurse on a floor normally devoted to renal care but now also caring for COVID-19 patients, Murekeyisoni was busy. The 26-bed unit was at capacity. Yet the 10-year nurse, eight at UCHealth, offered her hand to the patient fighting a simultaneous battle against COVID-19 and cancer.

“I understood it was a time for me to be quiet,” Murekeyisoni said. “There was nothing I could say. This was a time to use my hands to tell her I cared.”

As she held the patient’s hand, her work cell phone buzzed incessantly in her pocket. Others needed her. But Murekeyisoni made sure her patient was not alone. Alysha Jackson, the unit’s administrative assistant, stepped in to be with the patient. Later, as the patient awaited transfer to the ICU, technician Jennifer Hopton came in. Following a visit by spiritual care representatives, Murekeyisoni joined nurse Erin Barry to hold the patient’s hands as she took her last breath.

“I have a great team,” Murekeyisoni said. “We’re here to change patient lives. But they change our lives, too.”

Murekeyisoni’s actions drew praise from the patient’s daughter who wrote hospital administrators to share her appreciation for the care delivered when she could not be at her mother’s side.

Murekeyisoni understands the challenge of time and distance. She fled war-torn Rwanda 15 years ago, having seen first-hand the genocide that rocked the African country. Immigrating to Colorado Springs under political asylum rules, she traveled to Trinidad to earn an associate’s degree in nursing and, later, a BSN from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She’s now pursuing a master’s degree while balancing work and parenting three children.

“It’s been hard,” Murekeyisoni says of the COVID-19 pandemic. “But I’ve been through hard times before. We’ll get through this.”