alaur74

Thank you for such a touching story. It must be difficult to adjust to everything as it happened so quickly- I hope you and your family are finding peace and tranquility. Your parents sound like they were amazing people who raised a fantastic family....

I have just graduated from an RN program. A month before my grad, my dad needed emergency brain surgery for an injury he sustained at work. Due to a series of complications, what should have been a relatively easy surgery turned into him being put in...

What I was getting at is that I don't think it is a nurses' role to be the first to introduce an idea with respect to diagnosis or prognosis. For example, I recall one nurse saying to us 'the doc ordered an EEG to see if your dad is still even in the...

oh wow. as I sit here with tears rolling down my cheeks, I am so thankful that there are such amazing nurses out there doing incredible, compassionate work. thank you for this amazing post.

ps thanks for your well-wishes:)

It is so tough when there is no advanced-care planning and the family has differing ideas... It's so easy to say how important advanced-care planning in retrospect. I know my parents have never had that conversation, but you can bet that everyone in ...

I get that. In fact, my last patient, a woman in her late 80's, had a massive cerebral hemmorhage and is now in a nursing home with a peg tube, and is only mildly responsive to painful stimuli. It is very frustrating and it keeps me awake sometimes. ...

this is good food for thought, anotherone. I think you can be supportive of a family's decision just by 'being'. Keep judgement and opinion out of the equation entirely. Treat them with respect. For example, in our case, it would have been great for ...

I hear you Leslie, lol. I find that often I'll ask myself 'is this a hill worth dying on?'. If so, I'll say something, otherwise I'll keep things to myself. I also like to go directly to the source rather than ***** and whine to other nurses, if I d...

Hey Leslie The nurses in his ICU are indeed amazing at the technical aspect of their jobs (some have been incredible in every way, don't get me wrong. But more often they have been sorely lacking in relational skills- and who needs that more than the...

I hear what you are saying. It was not meant to be offensive. What I am saying is that we are not doing our jobs in their entirety if we are merely being 'efficient'. Nursing is a science and an art, and we would do well to remember that. In difficul...

I must admit I was a bit taken aback when a previous poster said my comments do not relate to nursing. Then I realized that this person is one of the kind of the nurses I am talking about and taking issue with. That being said, I am also very thankfu...

Wow, you've been through so much. I am so sorry to read this. An entirely different perspective, yet also another example of a family not being/feeling supported in their decisions. Thank you for sharing your story. It brings me a tiny bit of light k...

Thank you for this- it made me laugh out loud:)

Esme12 I am just so very sorry to read your story. Breaks my heart. He sounds like he was a wonderful man. I am sure you miss him all the time. I am also sure he is with you everywhere you go. Peace to you and yours. Anna

In response to Altra's comment: I wear both the hat of a nurse, and that of a client. And as both, my comments indeed relate to nursing. I am not new to this. He was in a medically induced coma (would you rather I use different language here?) to sto...

i hear you there. last week, an 'intensivist' who never actually laid eyes on my dad decided he was to be sent to the medical floor and out of the ICU. He had pneumonia at the time, and we had just discovered bilateral blood clots in his legs (he can...

sorry- I copied and pasted it from another place- didn't realize how small it was!

thank you for this. very powerful stuff. my favorite saying- I have it tattooed on my arm. This would be my response... Offert ou pas, Dieu est ici. "invited or not, God is here". That can mean anything, as religion and spirituality are not one and t...

so timely for me right now. I have just graduated from an RN program. a month before my grad my dad needed emergency brain surgery for an injury he sustained at work. Due to a series of complications, what should have been a relatively easy surgery t...