Feb 25, 2008 08:17 AM - Absolutely beautiful, heartfelt and amazing. It really isn't so much about what we learn in nursing school and its true, it is a true and compassionate nurse who can think and act outside the box. You are the kind of nurse I would hope for if faced with such a situation. Martha

Feb 28, 2008 08:43 PM - Thank you, Martha.

You words warm my heart.

Mark

Mar 09, 2008 04:06 PM - To Interlukin,
I read your article I was so much touched by your thoughtful caring for the patient and his wife .you have done a wonderful job who never would had thought about it. it's greate inspiration for all nurses all over the world.
thanks,
vimal sangvikar
nursing professor,India.

Mar 10, 2008 08:17 AM - Dear Vimal,

I am so very pleased that my thoughts have inspired you into a new perspective of practice.

As a nursing prof., you have great influence on new nurses. And it is in this venue that you and other teachers can mold a new breed of nurses... strong, self-respecting, and focused.

When we introduce something as fundamental as I have written about we can affect people's lives until their dying day. Also, we provide hard working nurses a potential for a reward they would otherwise never experience.

Stay strong and never forget those students who are struggling ...they are often the ones with the biggest hearts.

Mar 10, 2008 12:51 PM - You are indeed an angel of mercy. I applaude your efforts and your spirit of humanity. I thought there were no other nurses with the grace and humanity you displayed in this act. I think back in my short career and the fondest memories I have is holding the hand of a dying patient, touching a newly diagnosed HIV patient, touching a lonely patient after all her latin family had gone home,rubbing lotion on the feet of my 101 year old patient who refused to give up and let go, touch can be healing as much as any medicine. It is a medicine. I remember when I was an ICU patient and I had a brain injury and what I now know was a subdural hematoma. After the swelling had gone down, still no one knows why. I was about to get bolts in my head when the swelling went down on its own. My nurse Clementine, the same nurse who kept talking to me when I was in a coma, and insisted the doctors werre wrong when they told her I could not hear her. That nurse came on her break and washed my head, the warm water brought tears to my eyes and when she saw the tears stream down my cheeks she said,"I knew it, I know you are in there." When I woke up, she is the first person I recognized, by her voice, other than my maternal grandmother. Touch your patients, warm human touch in an enviornment that takes all our humanness away will be something neither you nor your patient will ever forget.

Mar 18, 2008 12:21 PM - I am a nursing student. You are the nurse I want to be.

Mar 18, 2008 08:14 PM - Dear tocna3rn,

Keep a little courage in your pocket and you can do whatever you set your sights on.

Thank you for your kind sentiment.

Mark

Mar 25, 2008 02:13 PM - this message is very heart touching...i could never imagine the hurt that you and your husband still hold...i intend be the best nurse that i can be after i graduate. i always beleive that if you go the extra mile, you make a big difference in someone's life...God Bless, ami

Mar 30, 2008 02:22 AM - That is one of the most beautiful and sad stories I have ever read. Thank you for posting it! You are truly a wonderful nurse and a wonderful person! Bless your heart! I hope to be at least half the nurse you are some day!

Apr 04, 2008 08:21 PM - Your article was right on!! We have learned from it that what might seem unconventional if done with love and sensitivity is just the right thing. My father had Alzheimer's and had 9 children, three of us nurses.
Although he had stopped eating, a dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm put him at death's door. We all took turns rolling him and reading and applying lotion--all of the physical things we have been taught would help keep him comfortable. Some of us were resistant to pain meds and some of us were totally comfortable with that. Then we remembered my parents' love of music--specifically the musical Camelot. So we put it on. Soon, we were all laughing, recalling stories of him when he was healthy and things he said. Then we were all singing aloud all of the beautiful music of Camelot--especially the song Follow Me. We spoke to him and told him that he could go any time--that mom was okay. I still believe that he heard us--hearing is one of the last senses to cease. What better sound than the lilting voices of your daughters and their laughter?
I appreciate this forum better than you could know.....Thanks azmimi