It's that time of year...Christmas stories

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Christmas is coming. Half of us will be schlepping the halls.

This time of year always brings back one particular Christmas on duty.

First rounds , I am assessing a patient whose name was Jesus, a Mexican-American patient with a common first name for that culture. His wife was at his bedside. Her name was Mary.

His room mate's name was Joseph.

I realized.. it was Christmas morning and I was in the room with Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Spent the rest of the shift in awe.

What's YOUR Christmas story?

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
:roflmao: priceless!
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I'm not topping that story.. :D

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Specializes in Oncology.

I remember one shift I worked Christmas where one of my coworkers brought in fuzzy red and green socks for everyone working. It was a small gesture, but all of us there in our ridiculous matching Christmas socks brought a lot of joy to all of us and our patients stuck there on Christmas.

Christmas as tends to be a horrible time of year on my unit for young people dying horrible deaths, so most of my Christmas work memories are not happy.

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not a Christmas story but some years ago while working for a national insurance company (auto insurance), a man named Jesus (Latino) called to ask if his auto insurance would cover the rental of a 12 passenger van for Easter services...

we got a LOT of mileage out of that!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I'm not topping that story.. :D

Me neither...that one is a winner. :laugh:

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Many years ago, I was working in the NICU at Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was a day or two before Christmas and we had to send our transport team to the East -- to Bethlehem, PA to pick up a sick baby.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Hopefully you had a bed available and didn't need to put him in a manger.

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Specializes in Inpatient Oncology/Public Health.

My Christmas story is a real downer. I work Onc...well, I guess it's the way you look at it.

I was working Christmas(which is the night before for me) and we had a young leukemic who had been in horrible pain. Her room had been decorated in a lovely way, with softly glowing Christmas lights and a little tree. We were giving her a lot of meds just to keep things tolerable. She finally died on Christmas morning. I do remember the soft glow of the room and thinking she had finally found peace. It was one of those moments as a nurse I don't think I'll ever forget.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Well mine would have to be the one Xmas day shift I worked when I was working in the hospital. I was in the process of straight cathing a severely developmentally delayed quadriplegic teenager- like spread eagle, legs up above head, etc... and in the middle of it, the door flies open and in comes Santa.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Well mine would have to be the one Xmas day shift I worked when I was working in the hospital. I was in the process of straight cathing a severely developmentally delayed quadriplegic teenager- like spread eagle, legs up above head, etc... and in the middle of it, the door flies open and in comes Santa.

HO HO...oh NO!!!

:roflmao:

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Great stories!

I work peds, and it's hard on the holidays. I am always uplifted by the fact that when I come in that night, every single child has been brought a few gifts from the volunteers. We are a not-for-profit hospital and depend 100% on the community for things like this. One year the community donated so many gifts that many of the children had at least 10 each. This was especially moving because I work on a unit where many of the patients don't have family come to visit very often. They are essentially abandoned-- long-term neuro kids or trach/vent babies who have never been home and are now several months old and still have a long journey to get to home.

Working the holidays, especially in peds, I usually grumble a bit before I go into work because my work schedule always messes with my own holiday plans with my own family. But my kids are more than understanding. They tell me how good it is that someone takes care of those kids, especially the ones with no visitors. Nursing is a hard job physically and emotionally. But there's no better way to count your own blessings and hug your own children tight than after a Christmas night shift with the kids on my unit.

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