When Paulette Slade stands tall and gingerly puts one foot after the other, her emotions well upābecause her journey to walk again hasnāt been an easy one.
In fact, itās been a long, hard slog for the 59-year-old Calgarian, who was bedridden in hospital for 18 months.
Sheās spent much of her life battling lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the bodyās natural defence system attacks healthy tissues. It causes inflammation and can severely damage organs if not kept in check by drug therapy.
"I've been fighting balance problems for years," she says. "If I stand, I fall."
What has turned the tide in the fight of her life are some Ā鶹ӳ» (AHS) allies in her corner.
The retired social worker hadnāt counted on the stubbornness and tenacity of her healthcare team on medicine unit 32 of Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, who simply refused to throw in the towel on getting Slade vertical again.
āFrom the health teamās perspective,ā says nurse clinician Lance Schill, āweāve never given up on trying to give her the chance to recover and get out of the hospital and get home again.ā
Sladeās progress was slow.
āWe were able to get her up into her reclining chair when she came to us,ā says Schill. āWeāve now got her back on her feet again. Weāre determined as a team to give her the best chance possible.ā
And Marilyn Tkachuk, a service aide on Sladeās unit, has seen their relationship blossom into a true friendship.
āPaulette is a fighter. Sheās come a long way since the first time I met her,ā says Tkachuk. āI immediately knew we could really connect. We talked all the time. And thatās how we became close friends.ā
Sladeās baby steps have added up to major strides.
āIām walking five times a week, and I manage to walk about five metres, sometimes twice in a given day,ā she says. āItās just feels so freeing to move.ā
And sheās quick to give credit where she feels itās due. āMy team is fantastic. Theyāre caring. Theyāre loving. Theyāre supportive. Theyāre here when I need them. Thatās whatās helped me get through this.ā
Offering accredited cultural competency training shows the significant value AHS places on Indigenous culture. It will hopefully encourage more staff and physicians to learn more about culturally appropriate care.
Chelsea Crowshoe, Indigenous Cultural Competency Education senior advisor
Sharing our stories can help bring our focus back to why we do what we do. It can take courage and vulnerability to share them but, in doing so, Iām reminded this is the very thing we ask of our patients and families when they enter our care facilities every day.
Deanna Picklyk, Director, Engagement and Patient Experience
I try to remind staff: āYou are the reason things run in the hospital. You make sure everything is ready for the patient, even though youāre not in the room.ā
Supervisor Raquel Nogueira, a member of the medical device reprocessing department team at University of Ā鶹ӳ» Hospital in Edmonton
Iām just finishing a book called Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, by Bob Chapman. If we treat everyone like family, we have the opportunity to shift culture and create an organization of even more engaged, loyal, creative and high-performing staff.
Darren Sandbeck, Chief Paramedic
Any time you donāt have patient involvement, you lose sight of what you are doing. We canāt define wellness for our clientsāitās important they define it for themselves. Otherwise, we make assumptions that might be flawed and not beneficial.
Steven Panteluk, former unit manager for 8-1B at Ā鶹ӳ» Hospital Edmonton
Paulette Slade, centre, enjoys lots of supportive company on her walk on medicine unit 32 at Foothills Medical Centre. With her, from left, are her husband Daryl, who holds their dog Saffron, physiotherapist Brennan Bonesky and her healthcare aides Chot Jock, Judith Mallaire and Marilyn Tkachuk. After a year and a half of being weak and bedridden, Slade can finally walk again, and she gives much of the credit to the devotion and determination of her healthcare team.
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