One of my favorite patients nearly made me cry.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Busy day a shifts ago. First rounds had to send a patient to ICU for severe sepsis. From the moment I walked into the room until the time I returned to the floor after delivering him to ICU, an hour and a half had passed. The charge was fantastic, as I had two pain patients that had complained to management in the previous days, so I asked her to medicate them for me while I was handling my sepsis patient. The CNA assigned to my patients was fantastic, as he intercepted my call lights and non-nurse requests. The secretary was fantastic, as she paged the docs to my phone when I got two critical labs on OTHER patients during the rapid response and headed off family calls until I got settled.

So I'm finally ready to round on my other patients. I walk into a frequent flyer's room, who I had taken care of many, many times before, and I knew him well. He has many chronic conditions that exacerbate frequently, but he is the nicest guy you ever want to meet. He has a frown on his face. I asked him what's wrong. He said, "When you came around this morning, you said you'd bring my pain meds when you got done taking a peek at your other patients."

I felt horrible. I had sent the charge to two others when they had called, but I completely forgot about him! I apologized, and I said there was an emergency. He asked if the overhead rapid response call was one of my patients, and I said yes. He smiled at me and said, "Oh, that's ok. You always take good care of me. I like when you're my nurse."

After that stressful nearly two hours, my patient nearly made me cry! The rest of the day was still fairly ******, but my interaction with him was a bright spot that kept my internal light shining.

Had a crappy shift with a bright spot on it that kept you going? We all need a feel-good thread once in a while to keep us going.

[ICURN3020]

If only all of our patients were that understanding...

[Nola009]

Silver lining.... a memory to light your heart:inlove:

[Donna2011]

I work in Assisted Living. The other day, one of my favorite residents told me that he hopes I stay for a long time, because I bring so much joy to the residents. I didn't know if I should have cried or hugged him! It's great to be told you matter to them. :)

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

If only, usually when one of my patients codes I go see the others after and am met with yelling and grumbles about what took me so long. But it really is the small things that remind you why you do what you do

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

I was always humbled when I introduced myself at the start of shift.. "I'm ...... I 'll be your nurse now."

Many patients responded with... "thank you".