the little "wows" of nursing

[female12233]

I'm sure every nurse out there has had that day that seems as though it'll never end. When all of your patients are needy and want you every five minutes. That day were your floor or unit has discharges and admits coming left and right. I'm recently out of school with my RN, I worked as a LPN before but never got the opportunity to get a job at a hospital until now. It has been a whirl wind of an experience to say the least. The biggest adjustment for me is learning how to do those extra little things for my patients while still maintaining the by the book aspect of nursing. Afterall meds still have to be passed, orders still have to be obtained and working short staffed is common everywhere. But even though I feel like I'm gonna drowned at times, than I have something amazing happen to keep me in the game. Which brings me to a recent experience with a well known patient. We'll call her Maddy.. Maddy was a middle aged college professor who had to get a colostomy placed. Maddy was suppost to come onto the surgical floor where I work after surgery, be stable and leave in no time at all. Two months later every nurse had, had her and she had gotten quite the reputation. Maddy had a wound vac to her abdomen, a fistula that was causing stool and her medications to float into your wound, a colostomy, was on TPN and was NPO for over a month, was on contact isolation, had a special mattress, a sump drain, a foley and to make matters worse would have fits of emotional outburst around the clock. For a few hours she'd be okay, happy, smiling, laughing at the jokes she had made and then the next few hours would be outburst of firing staff from her case and throwing objects in her room. My first day out of orientation and with a full patient load I ended up being staffed with Maddy. I decided today I was going to focus on her and knew that by doing I would not be able to leave on time and would more than likely be severly backed up on charting but it's something that I WANTED to do! Maddy and I hit off right from the start I told her my whole aray of chessy horrible jokes and she laughed. Then I said Maddy let's get out of this room today, let's do something CRAZY and put a toe into the hallway. She laughed and said okay we'll have a parade but first there was a list of things I would have to do. Apparently for our parade we had to have signs so that everyone would know we we're a float, she had to have a balloon why i still don't know lol and i had to sneak her a sip of juice. Normally I wouldn't have given in to these damands because it's just not practical for the most part. But Maddy had refused all of her meds including her pych meds for some time, had fired PT and OT along with some of her doctors for that matter and I was determined that today was gonna be different. So I grab my wallet and headed down to the gift shop picked up a quick 3 dollar balloon with flowers on it, ran back up stairs grabed a blank piece of paper and wrote the pooper scoopers presents: and then our names (she made up the floats name not me...lol), grabbed her apple juice and gowned back up because afterall she was on contact precautions. By the end of this rediculous looking ordeal the tech and I had on our ugly hot yellow gowns with our homemade signs taped to our chests saying the pooper scoopers presents and I had a balloon tied onto my gown bumping into the back of the head. BUT Maddy got out of the bed even with all that equipment and walked to her hospital room door and proudly strutted into the hall were a crowd of laughing on lookers of fellow staff members cheered her on. It is a scene in my mind I WILL NEVER FORGET!!! But as rediculous as I looked and felt I know I did something wonderful that day even if it did throw off the entire rest of my day. When I went to leave that night Maddy kissed my gloved hand as I said I was going to give report to her night nurse and thanked me for all that I had done. I don't think I could have stood any taller or beemed any brighter that night as I walked off my floor and out to my car.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

that's just sooo awesome! way to go!

[BEDPAN76]

Sitting here with tears in my eyes....... this was me 30 years ago. female12233 you make me proud that there are young nurses like yourself out there in action. I had some great experiences like that years ago. You will never forget this patient and what she taught you. Best of luck in everything you do. May you have a rewarding career! It would be an honor to work with you....:clphnds: Don't ever change! :urck:

[glory_devine]

OHH, that was so sweet.:clphnds: