Ok, we (I) spend a lot of time venting about our jobs, our hospitals, co-workers and patients. I personally think that it's healthy to "get it all out" (though obviously there are some here that would adamantly disagree with me). There have been many days that I have asked myself why an otherwise sane person would keep going in to a job where they're expected to do the impossible on a daily basis, take crap from patients and family memebers and subject themselves to a lawsuit every time they walk through the door. Here's why I do what I do...
I work in a LTACH. Some people think we're nothing more than a glorified nursing home, but truth is we get the sickest of the sick. A lot of times our patients are only there because there is nearly no hope of survival, but the family refuses to change their category status. We have an occassional cat 3 or 4, but mostly our patients are cat 1's. We deal with families that are irate that their 90 year old mom who is s/p cabg, on a ventilator and a cardizem drip didn't get up with physical therapy today. Our patients often stay for months before moving on (one way or the other). I once had a supplemental nurse that I was orienting ask me "Why do you stay here? How can you do this?" I pointed to a lol on our ICU unit who was, at the time, all but completely comatose, on a vent and was seriously at death's door. I told her I stay here because if you hang around long enough you might just get to see that lady walking in the hallway. I stay because you never know and I have to see how it ends.
I fluff pillows, I get coffee, I beg the kitchen to fix something out of the ordinary in the hopes that my patient might eat more than 10% of their meal just this one time. I have gone on my lunch break to get crazy stuff like buttermilk for a patient that was craving it or air freshener for a new ostomy patient. I have dragged patients in thier bed and on a vent so that they can see the sun and feel the wind on their face for the first time in months. I have been at the bedside the moment a family has realized that their family memeber wasn't going to make it and I have provided them with whatever support they needed as they sat by the bed and watched their loved on fade away. I have held the hand of a patient as they take their first steps. I have held the hand of a patient that has just been told they will never take another step.
I do it because someone has to. I do it because I am capable of doing things for people that they never wanted to have to ask someone to do and I can help them retain at least some of their dignity. I do it because, even on my worst days, I can't imagine myself doing anything else. I do it because I love it.
