my happiest is before i started nursing, when i worked as a disability support worker.
one of the other support workers made a big photo frame up with photos and captions from a camping trip they took the boys on (a massive task, and a massive success). she was showing it to the kids, and the first two weren't that interested, but the last boy, who never focussed on anything, looked dead at it for ages, gently stroking the frame and making his 'happy noise'. didn't even realise i was crying till the tears dropped onto the table. before that we weren't sure how much understanding he had, and most people believed he could barely see. it was awesome!
saddest thing i've seen was when an old lady we'd had in for a week or so died. you need to understand that i've only been nursing a year, and have spent that time on wards where death is a very infrequent visitor. this lady had been doing something mundane, and had suddenly had a massive CVA, the kind where you don't get better. my ward has a wing with bigger than average rooms, so rather than going to the medical ward, she came to us so her husband could stay by her comfortably for her last few days. we did all the normal comfort care things, and for a week he stayed with her non-stop, helping us with her hygiene, combing her hair, talking to her etc. the only time he left her room was to call the funeral home, and to talk to the staff about what would happen when she passed away. he wanted to be there with her when it happened as his final service to his wife of 50something years. on about the eighth day, she died, alone, while he was in the shower.
Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Drysolong:
If PEDS nursing is what is in your heart, please please go for it! It has so, so many great rewards. Yes, it is a very tough area of nursing emotionally, and so many nurses say that they will never do it, for that reason. Myself, I would love to be a peds nurse, but the parents make me horribly nervous at times, and so that is why I do not work on a peds unit or in a peds hospital; just take care of the occasional peds patient on my med/surge floor. I believe that if I could learn to handle myself around the parents a little better, than I would love to do strictly peds, because it is just SO SO rewarding and I love the kids!
The first time someone said "nurse" and i was able to turn around and say "yes?" and able to help as a nurse.
A C-section for twins and the twins were hugging each other and crying.
Saddest:
All of the surgical repairs we've done to children and adults that were victims of sexual abuse or rape, diagnostic laps where it was determined that a 19 year old woman would never be able to have children, D and E's on woman that have had multiple miscarriages, double radical mastectomies, a C-section where the father of the baby bolted out of the room and was never heard from since, STD treatment on a woman with depression who wasn't interested in sex much so her husband took it upon himself to getting his itch scratched by prostitutes and brought warts home to her and later left her for another woman. Finding out during an exploratory lap that the cancer is way more advanced than first thought, and after seeing this, the surgeon asks for a closing stitch. Then heading outside for a break after that case, seeing the family of that pt. in the waiting room, and knowing the results before they do.
Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.
Saddest? A little baby was born in La. to a couple who's mother gave up guardianship after learning of the baby's severe heart defect. Without surgery this child would not last thru the weekend. He arrived to us early on a Friday morning, and we lost him just before 0700 on Monday. I know he didn't spend more than a few moments in his crib in his entire life. I was holding him as he died...and not a day goes by that I don't think about him. My son was just two at the time so it was pretty hard, but I thank God every day for allowing me to be a part of that baby's life.
Happiest?? You know, as a medic I've saved more than a few lives in over the years. And while it's rewarding, it's not the happiest I've been. Back in 1992 I was a paramedic student in Virginia...had a ton of calls during our 10 hour shift. After 3 or 4 very demanding calls (it was 90+ degrees in the shade that day)...we got a call to an assisted living facility for a "fall". We get there and I met the most amazing patient I've ever had...this lady had fallen and probably broken her ankle...all the signs were there, swelling, deformity, tenderness..Anyway...
I obtain her history and I'm amazed at her level of cognition. Ask her for her age?? 103. Birthdate? 3/26/89...that's 1889 for those of you who are arithmetically impaired :wink2:
During our 20 minute transport I got to learn more about her...one of the first female attorneys in the state of Virginia...has 3 great great grandchildren...and she was as sharp as a tack.
I've never looked at the elderly the same since.
Cherish those who came before you, you could learn a lot from them.
A C-section for twins and the twins were hugging each other and crying.
I hope someone was able to get a picture of that! It sounds beautiful.
We don't do co-bedding (infectious disease department rules), so from the second twins or other multiples are delivered, they are separated until after discharge! I was taking care of twins the other day, and they were both very irritable and inconsolable. I'd be willing to be that if we were able to put them inside the same isolette, hugging or spooning each other, that they'd be much happier. I think they were lonely and scared!
Saddest? A little baby was born in La. to a couple who's mother gave up guardianship after learning of the baby's severe heart defect. Without surgery this child would not last thru the weekend. He arrived to us early on a Friday morning, and we lost him just before 0700 on Monday. I know he didn't spend more than a few moments in his crib in his entire life. I was holding him as he died...and not a day goes by that I don't think about him. My son was just two at the time so it was pretty hard, but I thank God every day for allowing me to be a part of that baby's life.
You really struck a chord with me there.
Words really can't describe the feelings we have during times like that, but we can always try. Usually children's parents are there to hold them as they are dying, but not always. The few times in my nursing career that I have been there to hold a baby during that time...it's just so bittersweet. The bitter part is obvious...babies aren't supposed to die. But the sweet part...it's so hard to explain. This is the only life they're ever going to have. To be there, and to be holding that baby during those few minutes, hours, days...it's just so heartbreaking. People say that nurses are like angels. This is the only time that I ever really feel like one. I cherish those moments. To be a part of that baby's short life, to be there holding them, rocking them, singing to them, LOVING them, allowing them to die with dignity...those intimate moments just rock me to the core and I just feel blessed to be a nurse.
I hope someone was able to get a picture of that! It sounds beautiful.
They did (one of the nurses hurried up and grabbed the camera from Dad). With a digital camera, so everyone was instantly able to see what a good picture it was.:)
i've only just started working as a pct a few weeks ago, but there have been definite highs and lows to my job!
i'd say that the high points have definitely been very personal for me: doing a successful blood draw on the first try (and the patient saying, "well, that didn't hurt at all - thanks!"), feeling like i made someone a little more comfortable, knowing i'd helped out a coworker who was really feeling overwhelmed. one of my favorite memories is a 89 y.o. postop female on our unit who was mostly incoherent... until i started to feed her vanilla pudding, and she just looked at me like i was her hero and said, "oh, yum! this is so good!" she just kept saying "so good!" after every bite - i'd had a crappy day thus far and it totally made me smile
two low points: my first ever patient was a 72 year old tia patient who never said anything but "g*dd*mn!" all the time when i bathed him, cleaned him, turned him, etc. he was combative and would try to grab your gloves off... but he was so extremely weak that he never could do any real harm - he had zero strength. he always had this very scared look in his eyes, and his wife was always by his side, looking equally as helpless. i'm sure it's not the worst i'll ever see but i will never forget him because he was my first patient. the other low point happened yesterday: a 101 yr old lady with a broken hip who just kept crying and saying, "god, please take me home" anytime we needed to clean or move her. it was me and another nursing student, and we were both crying by the end of it. she's a dnr, was told she would never make it through surgery to actually fix the hip, and the rns tell me that there's no family that will visit.
Saddest: Had a patient, elderly female in respiratory failure. I could hear the fluid gurgling in her lungs and the sputum rattling in her upper respiratory tract so I decided to NT suction her. The absolute look of sheer panic in her eyes...that is something I'll never forget. I started crying and promised her I would never do that again. Later in the shift her family made her a hospice patient. She died shortly thereafter.
happiest- how can I pick just one? The birth of a baby, especially a baby who has been wanted and prayed for, for a very long time, is so powerful. I have one very happy moments that will always stick in my mind though- I was the labor nurse for a close friend of mine until the end of my shift then stayed as her support person, and she ended up with a stat C/S after a failed vacuum attempt (boggy caput, FHR in the toilet)- we knocked over the Christmas tree as we were running down the hall wheeling her into the OR!. Baby was delivered, all was well, then my supervisor (there were probably 4 of us in the OR) wrapped baby up and was about to hand her to mom & dad when she stopped and said- Sarah, you should do this. So I got to bring that baby bundle of joy to my friend and be the one to hand her over to dad, as he held his daughter for the first time.
The saddest? The sound of a coworker's wail- it wasn't a scream, it wasn't a sob, it was just the saddest sound ever- when a mother died. I came in about 15 minutes early that day. A young woman, newly married, had coded during delivery (later determined to be an amniotic fluid embolism), the code team worked on her for hours... baby was saved, c-section during the code... I came in to the very end. Was pushed out the door before I even clocked in to run for something. When I came back, the decision was just being made to call it, and a few of us were just standing at the nurses' station, waiting- then that wail. I will never, ever forget the sound of that nurse's cry; we thought it was one of the fmaily members. I will never forget that sound. Or the image of one of the woman's family members falling to the floor in grief. Or of that baby, crying all night long, with no mommy to comfort him, and that poor dad, who became both a father and a widower in the same few minutes, with that numb, lost look on his face...
Now I'm crying. I should have stopped after the happy moment...
Saddest: Listening to them "pull the plug" on my brother-in-law
Happiest: Watching my nephew being born after a risky cervical cerclage (sp?) several months prior. Later that day I dropped to my knees in the shower crying. I realized that I had lost my faith when my brother in law died. After Noah was born (who's doctor wanted to start pitocin on at 16 weeks because of his mothers incompetent cervix) my faith was returned. After being gently pushed back into the womb (feet with intact bag of water were inside the cervix), and held in tight with prayers and months of mothers bed rest, he was born into the world two months early, did not need a ventilator and had his sucking reflex.
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NurseCard, ADN
2,850 Posts
Drysolong:
If PEDS nursing is what is in your heart, please please go for it! It has so, so many great rewards. Yes, it is a very tough area of nursing emotionally, and so many nurses say that they will never do it, for that reason. Myself, I would love to be a peds nurse, but the parents make me horribly nervous at times, and so that is why I do not work on a peds unit or in a peds hospital; just take care of the occasional peds patient on my med/surge floor. I believe that if I could learn to handle myself around the parents a little better, than I would love to do strictly peds, because it is just SO SO rewarding and I love the kids!