My Encounter with Florence Nightingale at the Endoscopic Unit

The nature of health and well-being transcends the absence of diseases. Therefore health care practitioners, especially nurses, have a crucial role to play when it comes to the provision of holistic care to clients. This article examines how the incorporation of tender, love, and care into nursing can save lives and improve the health of clients. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

My Encounter with Florence Nightingale at the Endoscopic Unit

It has been almost 4 years now when I was diagnosed with stomach ulcer by a physician at my town in Ghana. The diagnosis was! purely based on the symptoms I explained to the physician; recurring heartburn, indigestion, and pains in the abdomen. No endoscopic test was performed on me.

Omeprazole - one of the most widely used proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) - was prescribed to be taken in the morning at least thirty minutes before breakfast. I was advised to take it continuously for three to six months. I couldn't imagine myself at this young age depending on drugs for this long, but that was just the tip of an iceberg. My eating habit was also altered. I was counseled not to consume oily, spices, pepper, acid, caffeine, gaseous food and drinks respectively. Thank God sugar and salt wasn't included!

I heeded to this care and treatment plan until I was no longer experiencing any problem. Therefore I stopped using the drug and started ingesting anything that came my way. Last week Friday, I was rushed to the emergency ward of Ataturk Training and Research Hospital in Turkey's capital, Ankara, following acute abdominal pain. I was given Intravenous (IV) replacement and Nexium - which contains a medicine called esomeprazole, a proton pump inhibitors(PPIs). Before I was discharged, I was required to take a "randevu", appointment, at the Gastroenterology polyclinic for an endoscopic test. The appointment date was the following week Monday, September 26th, 2016. I requested for a change of the date to Thursday, 29th. Surprisingly, the issuer changed the appointment to 13th October which also falls on Thursday. Without carefully looking at it, I took the appointment home.

Thursday the following week, I woke up and went to the hospital without taking breakfast per the instructions given to me. I arrived at the hospital very weak and thirsty due to the long fast of the night. For fear of having the result of the test being affected, I couldn't risked to take a sip of water. I arrived at the Gastroenterology polyclinic with my appointment letter and result of a blood test that I was supposed to carry along. My ID was controlled, and I was asked to wait for my turn. Some few minutes later, I heard my name and so I walked with the speed of wind to the Nurse.

I was called back immediately I was about to enter the endoscopy unit. The reason being that I came the wrong day and that my appointment is next two weeks time. They instructed me to go home and come back on the appointed date. I was shocked and tried to explain what transpired between me and the issuer of the appointment. But i abruptly turned dumb and unable to speak at that moment. I looked pale and drowsy as i took my steps out of the corridor of the department. The stress and pressure on me triggered my abdominal pains. Already being weak, I fell flat to the floor. Partially unconscious, my name was echoing in my ears by voices of the nurses around. I woke up and saw the eyes of one of the nurse filled with tears to its brim. Slowly, it flows down her cheeks before landing on her uniform. I was troubled and couldn't tell whether the nurse felt pity for my condition or me being an African foreign student in the country. But one thing on my mind I never doubted is, the Nurse was simply empathic.

This empathic nurse told her colleagues to perform the endoscopic test on me and ignore the randevu. The fact that i was a student also had an influence on her. Her colleague nurses all complied without any hesitation, as if they were ready for a command. I entered the operating unit after taking some minutes rest. The endoscopy Nurse made me lie on my side on a couch and numbed the back of my throat by spraying some local anesthetic into my mouth. A plastic guard was placed in between my teeth. I started feeling uncomfortable when the endoscope tube was inserted in my mouth and pushed through the oesophagus to my stomach. Without the sense of pains, I began belching and throwing up secretions. The less than 10 minutes operation seemed an hour to me. A biopsy, a sample of part of the inside lining of my gut, was taken.

After the operation, the 'emphatic Nurse' smiled, hugged me and spoke in Turkish " geçmiş olsun" which literary means " speedy recovery or I wish you a speedy recovery". As I write now, the report of the endoscopic test will be out on 19th October 2016.

The gesture and empathy shown me by the nurse was overwhelming and thought me a lesson that, Nursing is not all about administering care and treatment to patients. It's an embodiment of a whole lot of factors that ensures the complete health and well-being of a patient/client. This ranges from physical, psychological and social well- being and not just the ensuring the mere absence of diseases. I was taught the lesson of EMPATHY by that Nurse.

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abdul naafik

About abdul naafik

I'm currently a student at Gazi University in the faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Department.

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Specializes in Gastrointestinal Nursing.

Who did your exam? And with no sedation?? Wow

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Specializes in ER, PCU, UCC, Observation medicine.

Florence Nightingale died from Neurosyphilis by the way. In case you didn't know that. :up:

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Was it surprising to you that she demonstrated empathy?

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Who did your exam? And with no sedation?? Wow

Outside of the US it is the norm to do endoscopy without sedation.

In the US most Drs insist on sedation. I hate the way sedation makes me feel, so I asked my MD about doing my EGD without sedation. He was originally from outside the US, so was willing. He had other patients who also opted to go without sedation.

It was a little uncomfortable, because they would occassionally activate the gag reflex. If I have to have endoscopy again, I will do it without sedation. I don't like being sedated. I liked being able to see everything on the monitor. (I watched them take biopsies. They told me which part of the GI tract they were in. Etc.) I liked being awake to ask questions after the procedure. The whole procedure was over really quickly. I could drive myself. I could go to work after the procedure. All the PROS outweighed the one minor CON.

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