LOOOOOK into my eyes!!

JDougRN, BSN, RN

So I was working on a Med/Surg floor- You also need to know that I worked a second job at a different hospital in a maternity unit that was small- So small that it had no anesthesia on at night- that breaks down to no epidurals - in 9 years of OB, we did 3 epidurals (ALL on Doctor's wives, but that is a different post!!!) The labor nurses got really good at other ways to alleviate distress- including guided imagery, pressure points, massage, etc. So back to my story-

I have a nice older gentleman in bed B. There are only pull curtains separating the A bed from B bed- Another nurse (Who in most people's opinion is a LAZY, bad nurse) has the empty bed in. She gets an admission- a poor guy who has a WHOMPING kidney stone- gets wheeled off the elevator screaming and writhing in pain. His lazy nurse gets him settled and calls the MD to get another pain med order. My patient can hear the suffering from patient A. Nurse lazy doesn't bother to go in to help her patient - when I ask her about it, she gets huffy with me because she CALLED the Doc (30 minutes had passed, by the way), so what else is she supposed to do?

I felt so bad for this poor guy, I finally went in and told him - "I'm going to help you, but you need to listen to me". I then proceeded to do the same thing I did for my labor patients - Guided imagery, pressure points, etc. I was amazed at how well it worked- End result, after about 10 minutes of massage and calming the pt., he was asleep and snoring. He had gotten no narcotics in the ER- He had just calmed and listen to me - AWESOME!!!! I felt like I made a difference, and went about my night.

The next morning, I went in to give my patient his am meds- I asked him how he slept, and he told me ALL about this "Poor fella" who was in the other bed who came in screaming in pain.

"The Nurses hare are AMAZING though" my pt. said

"Really?" say I ?

"Yea- this young fella over there came in screaming in pain, but the nurses HYP-MO-TIZED him out of it!!!" He went on to tell me how he had seen something similar in the war- I giggled and went out to tell my friends at the desk about it- then went on with my day. The patient in bed A slept through all of this, so I never got a chance to say hello before I went home.

Fast forward to 3 days later, when I'm back on. Morning comes, and the nurse mgr. is there bright and early at 0700- She points at me and says "I need to talk to you!!!!" (GULP-words that will KILL you) She was smiling though, so I hoped it couldn't be that bad.......She went on to tell me all about how the pt. in bed A woke up the next morning, and DEMANDED to see the Pain Doctor who was kind enough to come in in the middle of the night to help him, and went on to RAVE about how much the "PAIN DOC" helped him.

My patient finally clued them in to the fact that it was a nurse who hypnotized him to take his pain away-

The Nurse Mgr was dying laughing, telling me how the head-high-mucky mucks were combing through the chart to try to figure out who the Doc was-....-

"Well just remember that!" I said- cause if I want, I can make you cluck like a chicken!!!!

So please understand- while it may not be the most glamorous job, not the most fun- M/S nurses make a difference on a daily basis, and I salute you all. And if anybody doesn't give you the respect you deserve....let me know- and I'll make them cluck like a chicken!!!!

LOOOOOK into my eyes!!

About JDougRN, BSN, RN

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