My Great Commission
A Glimmer of Hope for Patients and Families
Martha Bravo helps children have a better quality of life. A pediatric nurse in home health care, Bravo spends 12 hours of her work day caring for a child with a chronic illness in their home. She helps manage that child’s medication and take care of them throughout the day using medical equipment like ventilators, nebulizers, and suction machines. Because she works in the same space where her patients and their families live, she spends a lot of time around these families. She gets to know them well and connects with them. Bravo’s patients are often chronically ill children and are usually bedridden. Most of the families she works with receive home health care through Medicare and also receive other government assistance in order to have proper medical care. The parents of these patients struggle to find hope
4
RECORD MAGAZINE
in their situations or to keep their positivity as they find out the types of lives their children will likely lead. Meanwhile, the children are often frustrated, depressed or simply bored. She talks to them about God and prays with the children and their family to help take away the emotional and physical pain. Bravo shares her faith with them. Being at home with a patient means being in their space. Now, with precautions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bravo spends her days wearing a mask and trying as much as possible to maintain social distance from patients’ families. This can be tricky since there is not always a lot of room. She has also felt the impact masks and social distance have made on her ability to form relationships with the families. While she might normally shake hands or pat the back of a
distressed parent, she is not able to do so as much anymore. She continues to do her best to comfort families but has had to make adjustments in order to protect their physical health.
