On the positive side . . .

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It seem alot of posts are rants and we all need to vent but let's share a good story that impacted us or a time when we felt we made a difference. Something inspirational!:redpinkhe

Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

esme12, that was simply beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

Many years ago, when I was a CNA, I worked in a hospital that was very busy. I had been wondering why I chose this field and was considering going back to factory work. I worked the pm shift and had to get vs on my pts right away. Many napped at that hour so I would walk gently and talk softly. I was doing just that to an elderly pt when she woke up and looked at me with the most beautiful eyes and with a smile asked my if I was an angel. She said she had always been afraid to die but seeing her angel, she was so happy.

Made me change my mind right then and there. :nurse:

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Well, I hope your happy! I've been balling my eye's out for 1/2 an hour:crying2:. Your post got me thinking about a pt i knew had passed a few months back and I decided to look up her obit. I then started to look at the other obits from pts who died around the same time. PS I work in palliative. Then the water works started. I knew all those pt had passed, been there for some, taken bodies to the morge, told families, but did not cry this hard, most of the time I dont shead a tear, but man for some reason, pass me the klenex! I dont think I've cried about a pt dying for a while, I quess its all been just waiting to come out. When it rain's it pours!

Well here is what I was thinking about when I first read the post:

I had a pt, palliative as you now know. She was not terribly old, but husband had already died, kids lived out of the country so she was pretty lonely. One night, in the dead of the night, you know (well you might not) where all the work is done, pts are sleeping, charting is done and you have about an hour to just be still. Well this women want to use the BR so I helped her and as i got her back in to bed she said "I'm scared". I got to sit with her, hold her, hug her wipe her eyes and just be with her. I went home that day knowing, really, knowing I wanted to work in palliative. There are a lot of challenges in nursing but for me its moments like those that make it all worth it for me.

Now I'm crying again......:crying2: ......dang... Kleenex box is empty!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am a farily new nurse only a years experience, but about 5 months ago I was working the long term side of my facility. I it is a large 100 bed building and I get floated all over the place.

So I was working the long term side and a little lady had been transfered to my side on palliative care. I only took care of her that one 8 hr shift, I checked on her requently made sure she was comfotable, and her family was at the bedside the whole shift. She passed away a couple of days later.

After she had passed away, her granddaughter came up to me in another part of the building.

She told me I was a hard one to find (again I float all over the building) and she proceded to thank me for all the work I did with her grandmother, that out of all the nurses they had seen of the last few days I was the one that stood out because I was in the room when I said I would and I checked on her grandmother every hour to make sure she was comfortable.

That moment was worth it, to me I felt like I was doing my job, but to the granddaughter I had made a difference in her grandmonthers last few days here.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I have told this story before, but I bond well with our young teen moms. I don't know why, it just is what it is. I had a pt that I took care of as an antepartum in preterm labor at 27ish weeks (can't remember exact gestation). She hadn't really planned on getting pregnant, and the baby's dad had moved on soon after she told him she was. She talked about her life goals and we talked together about how the baby would change her priorities a bit but that her goals were still good ones and I encouraged her to not give them up.

Finally she broke one day and delivered. I happened to be taking care of her postpartum (baby was obviously in NICU) and she amazed me. She religiously pumped every 3 hours for her preemie son and insisted I wake her up during the night so she could continue. (Most of the time pts twice her age won't do that!) I offered to take her milk over to NICU so she could go back to sleep, but she insisted on taking it herself so she could say hi to her little man in the process. Can't remember how many nights I took care of her total between ante- and postpartum but we bonded and got along so super well. I went to go check on her on my last rounds the day we knew she was going home and she was asleep. I just grabbed a paper towel and left her a note saying I'd be thinking of her, wished her well in achieving her goals, and would say a prayer for both her and her son, then signed my first name. I saw her around when I'd be on shift and she'd come up to NICU to visit her baby and we'd always hug, then baby got discharged so she stopped coming.

Fast forward about four years; I was sitting in the nursery and the phone rings. Tech says, "Elvish, phone's for you. Dunno who it is." It was this patient. Clearly she had kept that paper towel because she had asked for me by name. She had graduated high school, had gone to community college, and was finishing beauty school. Her son was a healthy 4-year-old who was due to start pre-K soon. "And I just wanted you know that we made it, and that we're okay," she said.

That was probably one of the best days of my life.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
Not to rain on your parade - but always be careful of eating foodstuff sent in by patients/family. Not pretty when 80% of your staff call out for "GI upset"...

I will eat homemade food in a heartbeat....if the pt is eating or has eaten it themselves. I figure if it hasn't killed them it won't kill me either.

One night I took care of a Moroccan lady and mentioned how much I adore Moroccan food. The next night, she called out and wanted to see her nurse but didn't say why. I walked into the room and she and her husband handed me a spoon and invited me to sit down with them at this enormous plate of beef, veggies, and couscous that her sister had brought in that evening. You bet your bird I sat down and ate with them! Maybe it wasn't smart, but it sure was good eatin'.

You need to come work on my floor. :)

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
esme12, that was simply beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.

I still talk to my Jilly Bean.........and she's become the most amazing person, and I get a card to this very day from the other one every christmas. When I think of how mad my manager (head nurse at the time) and the furrowed brows of the nuns.......it makes me smile. There was something to be said for the good ole days.;)

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