The Patient I "Slept" With

Working 3rd shift as a CNA on the Med Surg floor was a great introduction to nursing for me. It had taught me many valuable lessons I was not able to learn in school. I learned the benefit of a timely med pass, that a complete assessment at the start of shift is essential. I learned it is better to call the Dr at 2200 vs. 0200. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

The Patient I "Slept" With

I learned how important teamwork is and how good working relations with your peers can make your night easier. Another important lesson I learned is that if a patient is going to go crazy it will most likely happen between the hours of 10p and 6 am. This lesson takes me into my funny story.

Years ago we had a gentleman who was maybe in his 50s this patient was post-op bowel resection with multiple IV lines, new colostomy, NG and catheter in place. This gentleman was recovering well whose only complaint was that of thirst. This patient had a large loving family who was tending to his needs during their visit. By 9 pm wife, kids, sister, and mother have given their hugs and kisses goodbye and patient was tired ready for bed. Vital signs at 10 pm were within normal limits and the patient was resting with his eyes closed.

1 am arrives and this by all accounts stable pt is now wide-eyed and upright at the side of the bed, pulling at lines, trying to climb into his closet~~catheter still hooked on the bed~~NG tube laying on the bed. Informing us we are nothing but crazy witches. Shouting at us to stop pulling on "Johnson" was the word he used. Nursing staff and I would get him back in bed, attempt to re-orient and settle him down.

This would last for maybe 10min when we would hear the shrill of the bed alarm go off again. Ativan was given per PRN agitation order, morphine was given. The nurse had done the best she could with the meds she was allowed to give.

Finally, after a few rounds of this game, the assigned RN told me to just sit in the room with the patient "just keep him calm and keep him in bed!!"

Being happy to be off my feet for a while I pulled the recliner up against the patients bed and placed my hand on his chest, every move he made I would pat his chest and tell him "Bill try and get some sleep" "Bill your in the hospital, go to bed" After an hour Bill was snoring. I was happy to be finally able to sit for a while so I am sure I extended my time with him by staying an extra hour or so, just to make sure he was sound asleep of course!!

At 0630 I check to peek in one more time on Bill, he is peacefully sleeping. I report off to the oncoming CNA "watch out, he got crazy pretty fast on us last night" then I let her know I had to sit next to him and pat his chest most of the night to keep him calm.

I come into work the following night at 7 pm and venture into Bills room, I see him there bright eyed and enjoying a visit with his family including his sweet mother. Bill is now as alert and oriented as ever. His eyes light up when he sees me and he says to his wife "Honey here is the gal that slept with me last night" The look on his poor mothers face still cracks me up to this day.

racing-mom4

About racing-mom4, BSN, RN

1,446 Posts

Share this post

lol :)

well that maybe emabrassing for a while... before u explain.

hehe! nice share.

Awww, he has some fond memories of you! LOL, a good story!

Specializes in Trauma, Pain Managaement.

:redbeatheHAHA!! That sounds like a story my mom alwasy told about when she was a new nurse-- She had to perform CPR on a male, middle age patient in a shared room-- the other bed at the time was empty. The next week, she comes in to check on the same patient, and a new one had moved in to the empty bed, and the two were talking. When she walked in, her patient lit up and said "HEY FRANK! THAT'S HER! THAT'S THE NURSE THAT WAS ON TOP OF ME!:redbeathe

What a lovely story -- you make me happy I'm studying to be a nurse. And it's funny too -- did you expect that he was going to have such a lucid memory of the night? I guess it goes to show you can never tell.

Specializes in Nursing, Midwifery, Public Health.

Nooooo! I can only imagine the scene. Thanks for sharing.

:hpygrp::lghmky: nice, so funny!

Specializes in N/A.

Ahhhh hahhahaha! This is so nice! I like the ending to this story, when ya first see it its like "WTH!" Then when you read it it's like "ohhhhh, how sweet!" I like those kinda stories :)

Working 3rd shift as a CNA on the Med Surg floor was a great introduction to nursing for me. It had taught me many valuable lessons I was not able to learn in school. I learned the benefit of a timely med pass, that a complete assessment at start of shift is essential. I learned it is better to call the Dr at 2200 vs. 0200. I learned how important team work is and how good working relations with your peers can make your night easier. Another important lesson I learned is that if a patient is going to go crazy it will most likely happen between the hours of 10p and 6am. This lesson take me into my funny story.

Years ago we had gentleman who was maybe in his 50s this patient was post op bowel resection with multiple IV lines, new colostomy, NG and catheter in place. This gentleman was recovering well whose only complaint was that of thirst. This patient had a large loving family who was tending to his needs during their visit. By 9pm wife, kids, sister and mother have given their hugs and kisses good bye and patient was tired ready for bed. Vital signs at 10pm were with in normal limits and patient was resting with his eyes closed.

1am arrives and this by all accounts stable pt is now wide eyed and upright at the side of bed, pulling at lines, trying to climb into his closet~~catheter still hooked on the bed~~NG tube laying on the bed. Informing us we are nothing but crazy witches. Shouting at us to stop pulling on "Johnson" was the word he used. Nursing staff and I would get him back in bed, attempt to re-orient and settle him down.

This would last for maybe 10min when we would hear the shrill of the bed alarm go off again. Ativan was given per PRN agitation order, morphine was given. The nurse had done the best she could with the meds she was allowed to give.

Finally after a few rounds of this game the assigned RN told me to just sit in the room with the patient "just keep him calm and keep him in bed!!"

Being happy to be off my feet for awhile I pulled the recliner up against the patients bed and placed my hand on his chest, every move he made I would pat his chest and tell him "Bill try and get some sleep" "Bill your in the hospital, go to bed" After an hour Bill was snoring. I was happy to be finally able to sit for awhile so I am sure I extended my time with him by staying an extra hour or so, just to make sure he was sound asleep of course!!

At 0630 I check peek in one more time on Bill, he is peacefully sleeping. I report off to the oncoming CNA "watch out, he got crazy pretty fast on us last night" then I let her know I had to sit next to him and pat his chest most of the night to keep him calm.

I come into work the following night at 7pm and venture into Bills room, I see him there bright eyed and enjoying a visit with his family including his sweet mother. Bill is now as alert and oriented as ever. His eyes light up when he sees me and he says to his wife "Honey here is the gal that slept with me last night" The look on his poor mothers face still cracks me up to this day.

I was wonderin' what do you mean by "I slept with" until I read the end. That's funny!!!!:wink2:

Specializes in Med-surgical; telemetry; STROKE.

Thank you for a great story.

I wonder about his wife's reaction :rolleyes:

Specializes in Med-surgical; telemetry; STROKE.
:redbeatheHAHA!! That sounds like a story my mom alwasy told about when she was a new nurse-- She had to perform CPR on a male, middle age patient in a shared room-- the other bed at the time was empty. The next week, she comes in to check on the same patient, and a new one had moved in to the empty bed, and the two were talking. When she walked in, her patient lit up and said "HEY FRANK! THAT'S HER! THAT'S THE NURSE THAT WAS ON TOP OF ME!:redbeathe

Thanks! :D