Nurse sleeps on couch to help mom out of predicament
A few days after a mother gave birth at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, she faced an unsettling predicament.
The baby was ready for discharge. But the mother was still dealing with severe complications. It was late in the day, and she didn’t have anyone immediately available to take care of the baby.
“If mom is a patient, you’re by default considered unstable,” said Clara Hogan, nurse with MCR women’s care.
By 9 p.m., hospital management and the house supervisor were involved, trying to figure out what to do about this situation.
“It was starting to get pretty stressful. We take everyone’s safety seriously,” Hogan said.
She had previously worked with the patient.
“I felt like I had a pretty good rapport with her,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’ll just sleep here.’”
Her shift ended at 11 p.m. Instead of going home to her husband and kids, she slept in the patient’s room, on the couch. This was completely voluntary; Hogan wasn’t paid for it.
“If mom got in trouble, I would be there until the family showed up,” she said.
That night, she chatted with the mother and changed the baby one time. She said the baby actually slept better than her own kids did at that age.
“It’s nice to be in a position to make a difference for people,” she said.
Nurse manager Laurie Dupuis said that Hogan is “one of the most innately caring individuals I have ever met,” selfless in regards to her patients and colleagues.
“Clara’s first thought is kindness,” Dupuis said. “She doesn’t even understand why praise is provided her because, for her, caring and kindness is the norm.”
Hogan, who’s been with the hospital for about five years and has been a nurse for 14 years, said she was just happy she could help, and that it was “a very little thing for me.”
“That’s what nursing is about though, right?” she said. “Taking those opportunities to help people out.”
Dupuis said that she’s “an exceptional human being. The world would be a better place if everyone cared like Clara.”
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