A Heartening Moment

[RenaissancemaN]

Tonight was a good night at work. Im in the midst of transferring to a Nursing Assistant, but right now I am currently employed as a nutritional aide at my local hospital. Since food trays have to be passed out in a timely manner, I have little time to spend with the patients. Tonight was a little different.

As I was collecting the food trays, I entered a room and noticed a woman feeding a patient. The room was a 2 patient room and I only saw the one. At second glance I realized it was the other patient who was helping feed the one patient. The woman was so sweet. I watched for a little as she gently raised the spoonful of food to the incapable patient's mouth. I asked her why she was doing that and she replied "I love to help people, that's what life is all about right?" I agreed. It was very heartening to me.

I understand the nursing team is very busy at times and can not get to all the patients at once to feed them, but does anyone have a problem with a patient feeding another patient?

[ChocoholicRN]

If the patient who is being fed is not at risk for aspiration and has no difficulty swallowing, than I have no problem with this. However, there was one instance where patient B was helping to feed patient A, who was extremely confused and not always the most cooperative. Patient B was warned not to feed this patient and that her private aide would be back shortly to help her. After several warnings, Patient B got the hint. But otherwise, I don't see this as a problem. As nurses (and aides, I was one too!) we are usually very busy, so any bit of help is appreciated. Glad to hear you had a good night at work, you'll make a great nursing assistant!

[CHATSDALE]

the second patient even if very good hearted is not capable of determining whether a patient is capable of being fed or not if a patient aspirated or choked to death the responsibility would be the nurse

scary

[leslie :-D]

while it's a lovely gesture, as a nurse i couldn't support these acts.

pts do not know ea other's med'l status, dr's orders, npo or not (trays have been erroneously delivered)...

too many risks, unknowns and responsibility.

i think i'd feel more heartened if pt b offered her blanket.

leslie:nurse:

[RenaissancemaN]

thanks for all your input. I was a little unsure about the whole situation even though it was very touching to see.

[RNfromMN, BSN, RN]

Thank you for sharing this moment from your day - it really is very touching, despite the fact that it may not be the most ideal situation.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

It's very tough for non-nursing personell to know what each person's status is...after all, sometimes patients are NPO, but still get trays...right? I appreciate the gesture, but patients should be reminded that they should not be helping other patients as they are not educated enough to know what each patient's condition is...

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

I hadn't thought about this in a while....earle58 made me think of it.

We had a LOL in bed A and another LOL in bed B, but bed B couldn't talk above a whisper, and really couldn't use her callbell very well (CVA). We did frequent rounding, but we couldn't stay in the room 24/7....

Long about midnight, bed A calls, and says, "can I get another blanket?" Off goes her nurse, to get a blanket, and she comes back and she's got tears in her eyes. The lady in bed A took the blanket and got up and put it on bed B, and told the nurse, "she kept whispering she was cold, and I couldn't go to sleep thinking she was laying there freezing..."

There are good people in the world.....

[AnnaSL, BSN, RN]

I agree with the majority here.. The gesture is very much appreciated but it is our duty to keep everything documented. In an instance such as that, as heart warming as it is, is still very alarming.

like what other's had said, there are special orders that Patient A doesn't know about that might hinders a suppose to be procedure..

What if a px is on NPO and a Major operation is in need to be done and nobody knew that someone fed him or something, then that's a big problem..Really big problem

The best thing we can do in an instance like is talk to the very helpful Patient A away from Patient B. Thank her for her generosity and help but inform her in a good way that there are special considerations and orders that sometimes need to be confirmed before doing something. Tell her that she can help more if she could also inform us first of what she wants to do before actually doing it.

Although we cannot directly disperse an information regarding the px she wants to help, there are a lot of ways to actually tell her (non-offensively)which can be or cannot be done...

But in a way, she is very helpful...