RNCriticalCare

Go Team ICU!! Love those days when everything gets crazy and the only reason all your patients are alive at the end of the day is because everyone pulled together. What a great "save" you had...a baby gets to have a mom, there is nothing better!

One of my best moments as a nurse, I love this story. I work in the ICU and had taken care of the same patient for multiple days, really getting to know him and his family. He had been extubated the day previous and was doing OK after a lengthy intubation. I gave him a really good bath, lotioned, new sheets, backrub, the whole deal. I put his bed in "Chair Mode" and turned it to face the window so he could look outside. This poor patient had been so miserable for days, and he SMILED over and over again. I had tears in my eyes as I brought his family in to see him, they spent the afternoon talking with him and he was most interactive he had been for weeks. The next day I was his nurse again, and we had to re-intubate him and he went downhill quickly. He passed away a few days later. I went to his viewing with another nurse who had also cared for him frequently, and his wife couldn't believe that we came and just cried and said "It's our favorite nurses" and knew us by name. Those are the days that make up for all the bad ones, I will never forget that patient and his family. Brings tears to my eyes even now...