Maybe as a tag-along to the thread that has people in a twist over whether or not nurses are being positive enough, or too negative, or whatever, we could try for something a little upbeat.
What has happened to you (or someone else?) at work that made you GLAD that you were there that day? Did you feel you made a difference?
I recently had a patient who had diverticulitis and was facing a bowel resection and somehow no one had either explained to him what to expect or he hadn't been able to hear it. At any rate, when I got him he was scared to death what was going to happen to him, whether he'd be able to eat/poop normally again. Somehow he got the idea he'd need a colostomy, and that freaked him out unnecessarily.
I spent all of fifteen minutes with him initially and watched this fella change from freaked out to calm, once he realized the why's and wherefore's. I then checked on him and let him talk when he needed. I got him after surgery, too, and while most of the time people never even give a cursory "thank you", this man made me feel like a million bucks! He thanked me for taking the time to talk to him and apologized for being "a baby". Oh, man, he wasn't a baby at all, just a human being who needed another human (who happened to have a medical clue) to calm him down.
I felt proud to be a nurse when I left for a couple of days :)
