Who was your 1st patient

Nurses General Nursing

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Do you remember your 1st patient ever?

My 1st rotation in school was at a LTC. I dreaded it, I wanted to work peds at a hospital, not take care of "old people". Her name was Minnie and I was terrified. The 1st thing I had to do was try and get that black tarry sticky iron induced stool off of her skin. It was everything I dreaded. By the end of the day I realized this was going to be my niche. I enjoyed talking to her and her roommate, Mrytle. Mrytle was a little jealous that Minnie had her own private nurse, so I also did things for her. When I left the room one time I heard Mrytle say, "She sure is a nice little fat thing isn't she?" My very 1st patient was the one that changed my direction in nursing and I thank her for that everyday.

Specializes in Med/Surge.

My very first pt as a SN was a woman who weighed at least 400lbs with a trach. Another student and I had teamed up to help each other do our assessments and a.m. care. Well, in order for her to conserve energy, we decided we would give her a bed bath. We were having a hard time getting her private parts cleaned so she got out of bed and then proceeded to bend over it so we good do a good job..........LOL It was all I could do to not bust out laughing b/c my partner was standing on the other side of the bed making these crazy faces.

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Oh I thought he was trying to make a pass at you!....

I thought so to

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

1976 and I have not a clue. I do remember the first bed bath I gave as a student. I was 19 years old and he was a 16 year old paraplegic. I had never seen a naked male. I was soooooooo embarassed and thought it unfair by my instructor. I still think, looking back, she was wrong. Her thought was that if I could make it through this bed bath I could handle anything. Being embarassed was the easiest ordeal to deal with after all these years.

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

I don't remember my first patient but I do remember my first code blue, on an obese lady that was in acute respitory failure. It was the first time I ever saw anyone die. I was a tech and I had to put her dentures in. The RN that made me do it wanted to see if I had the gumption it took to handle this kind of job ....That was 1974. and now I am still doing the same dadgum thing. except now I am a nurse

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LTC, first clinicals. Nasty, uncooperative, 300+lb woman. I wanted to cry and go home and never come back again! :lol2: I had her again a few weeks later and she finally started trusting me. I remember wanting to throw the brief/diaper, though. How was little old me going to roll a gigantic woman over and fit only an XL diaper on her, while holding her in place and changing the sheets?! Now I can roll and change like the best of them. Who knew I would be able to roll a big person over so far, hold them with one hand and change the sheets with the other! Or a bedpan. The first time, I was thinking "you want me to wedge this little plastic thing the whole way under there? And then have the person actually go into it?? And hold it down while they roll over again and unwedge it??"

I still don't know why facilities don't stock diapers over size XL, though. :idea:

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I do remember my first hospital patient (as opposed to my first nursing home patient from the quarter before). Our instructor assigned patients to us on our first day, and we went in only having a brief diagnosis. We were supposed to introduce ourselves as the student nurse, then go through their chart/kardex and write down/learn all their info, then participate in their care for the 2nd half of that first shift. Well....my guy had a 'cranial defect'. What she failed to mention was that a tractor had rolled over on this late-60's age guy and he was missing his left eye, zygomatic arch and entire eye socket, and the left front quarter of his skull. THE ENTIRE QUARTER. So looking at him head on, he had a working eye, then a depression covered by skin with sutures back on his skull at ear level. Freaked me out just a bit. I need a little more warning than that about what to expect! The guy was alert, oriented, and there to have OR to put in some sort of artificial/titanium, I don't remember exactly what sort of material, but they were going to reconstruct his skull. I left the room after my initial meeting, learned about what was going on, and was fine.

On a similar note, my husband is a locksmith working for the same hospital I do, and he was sent into a patient's room to change out a malfunctioning doorknob, and had been told that the patient in the room was blind. No big deal, my mother is blind and he figured he would just announce himself and that would be fine. Well, this was the rehab unit, and the guy was there because he had tried to kill himself with a gunshot through the head (vertically). He survived with a trach and feeding tube, and completely freaked out my husband. He had no eyes, no face, from the description I got. Not a great idea to send in someone unsuspecting, with absolutely NO medical knowledge/experience into a room with a patient who is going to scare them. He seriously had nightmares about this. It is different if you are prepared/have SOME clue, but he was pretty shocked. ANyway...

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

My first patient was a parapeligic that was shot in the back as he was driving from a passenger behind him. As the story went, the guy that shot him wanted to go to Burger King, but my paitent went to the nearest fast food place which was Mc Donalds....almost fatal mistake!

He was 18, and full of life. Not an innercity gang memeber but trying so hard to not be (he was from an area of Portland that if you aren't a gang member...you are no one!). Sweet and giving!

I was a student, so I had to do all this assessment stuff. Including a sexual health questionaire...oh brother! He was so kind hearted about it...saying "heck dear..if it works..I won't give that up! LOL". He knew that my care and questions would help with future patients...and he told me...I was the only one that saw him for him...not black, not a gang memember..no judgement..and no feeling sorry for him! I had no idea I came off that way...I did feel sorry, but the black or gang stuff didn't enter my head at all!!!!!

He was so kind to me, told me everything even if it made him cry..he told me I was his future...because if I helped him, or helped others in his state...he did the best of what he could do with little stress! He was so open, honest and down to earth..and he did set my tone for nursing!

I am down to earth, no holds barred, enter the grey if necessary, and always be true to my own gift of caring! He loved me as a Nurse for who I am...and set the wheels in motion when really..I was scared to death and wondering if I really could care for a patient!

And most importantly..to rememeber..I had no set bias, no stereotypes, no racisim...simply because I wasn't privy to that growing up...and to always think that way!!!!!!!

I wished I could have kept up with him, but rules...well, I couldn't quite get to the chart to write down his address because it is unethical...but many a day go by when I don't wonder about him, and hope him well!

People think patients are patients....I find there is always the potential of me being the actual learner and needy one..and them..the teacher!

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Specializes in Orthosurgery, Rehab, Homecare.

I'll never forget my 1st Pt. He was a 40 something Vet (at the VA) who had been in an MVA in a Hum-vee. He had a severe TBI. Comotose, responsive only to pain/irritation. The funny thing is that if you made him mad (ie washing his feet- he was ticklish) he would flip you the bird. If you kept it up he would flip you off with both hands. Fast forward 4 years and I am an experinced Rehab RN who treats many TBIs. I often wonder about him and how much he could have progressed with the proper treatment/stimulation. He had a young wife and 4yo Da. I think about him whenever I am caring for a low level TBI.

Bless those patients who agreed to have a student nurse and helped us all grow.

~Jen

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Great post, I hope it continues.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences.

(And I too thought the Dr. was going to make a pass. lol)

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My first patient was a 98yr old LTC resident. She was stuck in her own ways and was quite old fashioned. From the start she gave me a hard time. Wouldn't eat her food cause she didn't believe people shouldn't touch it. Wouldn't let me bathe her because she felt that women weren't supposed to see each other without clothes. Wouldn't let me give her meds because she thought I was poisoning her. I had her for 6 hours and thought this woman hated me. At the end of my clinical day, I tell her I was leaving, she then grabs my hand and tells me "Thank you for giving her the best day of her life". I looked at her for a minute kinda surprised because I thought this lady was a devil. She told me that even though she was mean and rude, no matter what I was always kind and respectful. She said I had plenty of chances to be just as mean to her like the employees, but I wasn't. I tell ya, you can't judge a book by its cover!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Nursing Education.

My first patient was a gentleman of about 32 who had to have his urethra stretched. ( I think...) From what I remember, they cut his member off at about the middle, did some sort of stretching of something, and reattached it. I remember putting vaseline gauze around his wound, and he was very quiet. My partner had his roomate, who had his finger cut off, and was reattached. He had leeches placed to his finger, and we joked that we better not put the leeches on the wrong patient!

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