A humbling story....reminder of why rehab nursing is amazing

So I am a direct caregiver at a residential facility for adults with TBI's. I hope to be an RN someday...I'm currently getting a bachelors degree in biology and will apply to an accelerated program after graduation (this may!).

So you know how patients in rehab ofen have short term memory loss so they say the same thing fifty times? Well, I was with one such patient. We were instructed by the RN not to give this patient anything to drink/eat, including water, between breakfast and lunch.

Well, this patient that I am with, about every three minutes is saying "thirsty." Lets call her Denise. I stared off my shift and everytime she would say thirsty I would politely, nicely, smilingly explain that she couldn't have anything to drink until noon as the RN wanted to check her electrolyte levels. She would then say "But I want to drink now." I would again explain the electrolyte level thing. She would then say okay, and about four minutes later we would go through this routine again.

Well, I was ending my 1:1 duties with her and another direct caregiver was coming in to take over for me and I was going to do other assigned duties. So, I turn to Denise and I say "Denise, Ben is going to take over now. I will see you later!."

She looks at me and starts saying "th..." and before she can finish saying "thirsty" i tell her, Denise I know you are thirsty, and i'm sorry about that, but it is 11:30 now so it's just another half hour okay?" At this point i'm starting to loose some patience. I didn't say all of this as nice as I had at the start of my shift. Denise picked up on my new attitude.

At this point Denise gets mad. She yells "NO." And I look at her and I say, Denise, what's wrong, why are you getting upset with me? And she looks at me and says "th...th....thank you."

She was saying thank you. Not thirsty. I don't know what hit me at that moment, but I just started balling. I couldn't control the tears running down my face as I apologized.

I won't forget Denise. Everytime I'm geting slightly annoyed/irritated I try to think about Denise, and I strive to do better. Still, I know i'm no perfect....I get irritated faster then I would like but I'm doing better and I really do care for the patients. It's just.....when I've been at work for 9 hours and 20 people are telling me to do 20 different things and I've gotten yelled at and i'm just frustrated, its hard.

This story is just a reminder of the old saying "patience is a virtue."

And, a hats off to all you rehab nurses who experience things like this every single day!!