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 :)
flmorse, that's the kind of thing you never forget. 20 years later and I bet you remember every detail....and I'm sure everything you said was in his mind for that last hour. Bravo!
I was doing night duty in a Urology Unit and we had an 18 year old Metastatic Testicular Cancer patient.
I was only 20 and had limited experience with death so did my best to avoid this young man's room but he rang his bell and I had to steel myself to go in.
He was in a sideroom with a window and there as a most glorious sunrise.
He turned to me with tears streaming down his face,grabbed my hand, and told me he was frightened of dying and did not know what to expect.
He asked me what death would be like and was there life after death.
I told him,that to me, death is not the end.
It is merely the final stage we go through.I said I believed that there would be people there to help him,his loved ones that had gone before and that he would not be alone.
He visibly relaxed and said he would be alright and that I could go.
He had a lovely smile on his face and almost looked angelic.
I went home after checking him several times to find him asleep.
I came on the next night to find he had peacefully passed away about an hour after I left.
While I felt sad I also felt good that maybe,in some way, I eased his final hours.
I've had moms that wouldn't leave their little ones with hardly anyone at all, and they wrote cards to my NM saying that they didn't have any problems leaving their baby with me. That always makes me smile
I love holding the little ones while mom can shower, eat, just get outside of the room for a while.
I love the little ones that beam at me when I take care of them, the teenagers that tell me that I made their day, all of the little things that makes me proud to be a nurse.
I have been a nurse in many different settings over the years. Right now I am in management (a choice I sometimes question). I think some of the best days are when I am successful in "winning one" for my nurses or when I speak to patients and they have great things to say about nurses and then I pass the compliments along.
But a story from being a staff PICU nurse..............We had a patient who was a frequent flier with lots of congenitial issues, about 10 years old. Respiratory, cardiac, etc. He came from a long distance and his parents did not stay with him all the time. He was absolutely a night owl and being in the hospital made this worse. He stayed up most of the night with us and slept a lot of the day. We had a pesky resident (you know the kind with early god syndrome who is not as nice as he could be to patients and families. The kind you wonder why they are even considering pediatrics and not derm or podiatry.). One night the nurses and this patient plotted against the resident.
We called the resident at about 2am and painted a pretty black picture regarding the patient's condition. The patient was previously right as rain and scheduled to be discharged at the end of the week. The resident came flying in looking a bit unkempt and frantic. He went to listen to the patient's chest and the patient pulled out a 60cc cath tip syringe filled with NSS and really got the resident! Lucky for us he did see the humor in our practical joke and took it in stride. It really made the patient's (and our night)
OK so it is not a glowing picture of professionalism but what do you want from 4 twenty somethings and a ten year old VS a cranky resident??:smiley_ab
No it was never reported to administration and no one got in trouble
I am new to nursing with about 4 months as a NT under my belt in a MS unit. My usuall unit was overstaffed last weekend and I was floated for the first time to another MS unit. Of course since I am a newer nurse I was given a 1:1 for an 82yo confused and combative patient. He constantly pulled at his central line and was quite loud. After reassuring him that he was fine and that his wife realy was comming in that day he began to calm down. every now and then he would wake up and hollar for his wife and I would once again reassure him. Well after awhile I guess he thought that I was his wife and started cussing me out. I was not realy surprised by his actions but I asked him why he was so upset with me, he replied "Because you havent given me my ***** kiss yet D*** you!!" I then told him that i could not do that because i am his nurse not his wife. He fell asleep. Later on that day I was checking his BG and out of the blue he asked me when I was getting married (Im assuming he saw my ring) I proceded to tell him the date and he then replied "Well when you get married its gonna be me that you marry!!!" I then told him that I didnt think his wife nor my fiance' would apreciate that. He just kinda chuckled and went back to sleep after I was done. The day went on with more and more little comments like this of his. He also is a big surgar freak and ordered me, his RN and his NS to take a nickle each and get ourselves a candy bar and bring one back for him and became quite upset when we told him he was NPO (he had a PEG tube). I despise doing 1:1's because I dont feel that I get much done but people like this realy make the day go by faster.
The BEST clinical day yesterday! I was observing at a nurse practictioners office (here in NH they can practice alone) and the staff was just wonderful as could be!! Then I went into their breakroom to get my drink and noticed a flier with employee birthdays on it.... the very first one on the list was a long lost cousin I hadn't seen since I was a kid! Evidently she works at their other office and I was so excited! One of the nurses called and we had a great conversation and are getting together on Sunday!
I haven't seen her since we were kids and now we both have kids older than the last time we saw each other but there are sooo many fond memories and I will be soon reconnected with my extended family. Her brother, and my uncle and aunt as well as another uncle and aunt!
Specializes in Telemetry, Oncology, Progressive Care.
I think many times we made a difference and don't even know it.
I had a patient for one day. The next day I came in and didn't get my same patients back so I only had this particular patient for one day. I came in on the 3rd day (came on to work 3-11 shift and I normally work days) and she was sitting outside the ER in a wheelchair. I didn't pay too much attention and didn't even realize she was the patient I had taken care of until she called my name (I was surprised she even remembered my name). She thanked me for taking care of her and listening. Then told me she was having open heart sx in a few days. Later on that night I received her son as an admission. I guess she said some things to him and he asked if I was the one taking care of her mom. I told him yes and he told me how much his mom enjoyed having me as a nurse.
I never even thought I was making a difference. I just thought another patient another day.
Whenever another nurse complains about a patient I am almost always able to go in and talk to the patient and get them to comply. I think a lot of it is all in the approach. I discharged a patient the other day who was a bear with this particular nurse. I witnessed how much of a bear she was with this particular nurse. Words flew back and forth between the two of them. I had her and never heard a cross word from her. I did my job and educated her on what she needed education on and she was fine.
About three months ago I had a pt come in with a STEMI, gray, diaphoretic, vomiting, etc. His wife and two daughters got there about 10 minutes after he did. We usually have family members wait in our family room in the ER while we prep the pt and take them up to the cath lab due to the limited time available. But for some reason, the other nurse and I let them stay in the room while we started his NTG, heparin, started another line, etc. and then let them ride up the elevators with us and accompany him into the entryway of the cath lab, talking to him, hugging and kissing him before they went back downstairs to wait.
During the cath, he had a huge re-perfusion injury, fibrillated on the table, was rescusitated but never regained consciousness, and died later that evening in the ICU, with his family there.
I had forgotten all about it until our Employee Forum this week at work, where the whole hospital is required to attend and the administrators give us the "state of the union" so to speak. The Chief Nursing Officer read a letter that the pt's daughters had written, saying how much they appreciated us letting them stay with their father, because they got to have one more conversation, one more kiss, one more hug, and got to tell him how much they loved him, not knowing it would be the last time they would ever see him alive. I burst out crying in the middle of the forum and probably looked like a fool, but that letter made my year.
I took care of a man on our unit over the course of a month. He had had an ascending aortic dissection and finally went to an LTAC. About a month later we received him back...he had dissected again. Surgery didn't go well and he came back on comfort measures to our unit. Passed away within an hour. We read through the progress notes and saw that he had been talking with his passy muir valve, was oriented, etc. It was heartbreaking.
His wife was the sweetest! She sad she remembered me, was thankful for his wonderful care and was happy that they got to spend that extra time with him. I was so glad I was at work that night so that I could see him and his family again and be there with them.
Something a little different for me....I just got my eval (3 yr) the other day and scored really high--4.8, the highest you can get is a 5.0. I just got a letter from our nursing director that said I got the highest eval score in the WHOLE hospital-not just nursing services, and that she wanted to congratulate me and wish me luck for the coming year. That was a real pick me up!!!!:wink2:
Specializes in LTAC, Homehealth, Hospice Case Manager.
I work in long term acute care where about 76% of our pts are vent dependent. Some wean well, some don't. Every now & then we get a pt/family request to withdraw life support...also known as a terminal wean. Some pts will pass within a matter of minutes & some have lingered so long we've had to send them to hospice. My first experience with this on one of my pts came 2 days ago. It is very draining emotionally & I felt so inadequate for the family. I wasn't really sure what to do for them & kinda felt in the way. I kept the morphine & ativan on board for my pt. I made sure I checked on the family at least every half hour or so to see if there was anything I could do for them & answered their questions as best I could. After my pt passed & I got the post mortem care done I just didn't feel like I had done enough & didn't know what else to do so I gave the family the time I felt they needed, but tried to stay close in case they needed me (I still had 5 other pts who needed noon meds). Before they left they searched the hospital until they found me, gave me big bear hugs & thanked me for the care & compassion I had given not only to their loved one, but them as well. It made me feel better to know that I had made a difference in one of the most difficult times of their lives. I did have to leave the floor for a few minutes after that. Later that afternoon my supervisor caught up with me & told me he thought I had handled the situation & myself very well & he was proud of me. Made me feel good to know he saw I did my best.
Lucky for us he did see the humor in our practical joke and took it in stride. It really made the patient's (and our night)
RNsRWe, ASN, RN
3 Articles; 10,428 Posts
flmorse, that's the kind of thing you never forget. 20 years later and I bet you remember every detail....and I'm sure everything you said was in his mind for that last hour. Bravo!