VNSNY Heroes of 2020: Along with Clinical Care, A VNSNY Nurse Delivers Groceries and Peace of Mind

On her way to a new start-of-care visit with an elderly woman returning home from the hospital, VNSNY Home Care nurse Diane Velilla first stopped at a bodega along the way to pick up some essentials: bread, bananas and a few other nutritious foods that she knew the patient might not have. This is the kind of personal, holistic care that VNSNY delivers to New York’s most vulnerable—care that’s more important than ever during the coronavirus emergency.

Before her scheduled nursing visit, Diane had received a concerned call from Jayitha Janardhanan, a nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai Heart, the patient’s hospital, who was worried that the patient might not have any food in her home. Diane decided to go a step further: On her own time and with her own money, she purchased some groceries for the patient.

“I said to myself, ‘Before I see her, I’m going to get her some food, just in case,’” recalls Diane. “I had visited the same patient a few weeks earlier, and I knew that she lives alone and has a history of diabetes, in addition to the congestive heart failure that she was hospitalized for. I was thinking about all that before my visit.”

“It’s visiting clinicians like Diane who make it possible for patients with complex chronic conditions to transition safely from hospital to home,” adds Jayitha. “All the people at VNSNY are heroes.”

As it turned out, Meals on Wheels had just made its first delivery when Diane arrived, but the bread and bananas were much appreciated, as was another essential element of Diane’s care: reassurance. Diane was a familiar face, sharing a common Puerto Rican heritage and Spanish language with the patient. During her visit, the VNSNY nurse practiced her trademark combination of active listening and gentle teaching to help convince the patient to accept the services of a new home health aide.

“I was so glad to see the patient, and she remembered me,” says Diane. “That made her less anxious. As a result, I was able to persuade her to let people help her. I reminded her that she’s just out of the hospital and may not be as strong right now as she used to be.”

The current pandemic is an especially important time to make sure patients stay safe and strong at home and avoid unnecessary hospital readmissions. Besides being stretched to the limit, New York’s hospitals and emergency rooms are flooded with patients suffering from highly infectious COVID-19. Diane has a unique perspective on this, having recently transitioned from working in an ICU setting to joining VNSNY and caring for people where they reside.

Now, as a Home Care nurse, Diane enjoys being able to provide one-on-one care to patients in their homes, where she can focus on education and take the time to make each patient feel special, heard, and understood. “It’s important to let people know during this emergency that they have somebody to take care of them,” she says. “When we’re visiting a patient, we can be present, talk to them, and really listen—and that brings them comfort.”

To read more VNSNY Heroes of 2020 stories, click here.