Topics About 'Nurse Patient Relationships'.

I had an elective orthopedic procedure requiring a three day stay. "Elective" is a bit of a stretch- a joke actually. I guess there are some superhuman people who could walk around without any cartilage on the lateral side of their knee, but I am not...

ETA: Some people have reported they found the context of this story unclear. To set the scene a little better: I was a member of the second last group of hospital-based student nurses; in Australia tertiary education was introduced in the 1980s and c...

The PatientDiagnosis: Small Bowel Obstruction Age: 55 Gender: Male That was all I knew of the most influential patient in my nursing career, now and forever, that early day of my first year of nursing. Ray was all of 140# when I met him. A gentle sou...

Anyone who works in nursing for any length of time has had this moment. It's the moment where you have done everything, exhausted an extensive supply of interventions, and all the medically appropriate treatment has happened but the outcome is not th...

When John showed up in the unit, he was non-communicative and usually in 4-way restraints as he would usually be doing a motion, we had coined as the crab. He would be on his back, moving each of his four extremities independently of each other, the ...

That One Patient takes the shape of many different things, and for me, it was Mr. Smith, a patient admitted with Altered Mental Status due to an infection in his spine that had allegedly gone to his brain and made him a completely different person th...

As nurses, we consider it a good day's work when nobody has yelled at us or thrown bedpans at us. When we hear, "Thank you for being my nurse; you are so kind," it borders on the near miraculous. Then again, there are those rare and truly treasured p...

The “she” in question was his daughter. And, no, she was not coming. You never know what a person’s past is, or the darkness that might have shadowed a relationship, but the daughter had been adamant that she was not coming and not to call her again....

It's 7:20 am. I stood there for a few minutes, looking down the hall at my two companion student nurses scampering around with their buddy nurses. I watched with envy at how their mentors actually talked to them. Now, let me be fair to my mentor. Whe...

Physical violence is an explosive epidemic, especially in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Workplace violence can be any act of physical violence, threats of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening, disruptive behavi...

Weight discrimination is the treatment of someone in an unfair manner due to the person's size. Even though extremely thin individuals are occasionally treated poorly due to their size, overweight and obese people are the most frequent targets. Weigh...

As a new RN in a large midwestern hospital, I started on the 8 hour night shift of a busy medsurg telemetry floor. Inexperience led me to rely heavily on my psychosocial skills and interactions with patients. After report one night, as I was assessin...

Many of us learn valuable lessons from our patients. I was fortunate to learn one very early in my career that has stayed with me for 35 years. I have long ago forgotten her name, but her face and her circumstances are embedded in my brain and have d...

When I entered the room I saw my patient lying in the bed with her back to me with her covers over her head. I called her name to introduce myself, but it was not until I told her my name was Miracle, a student nurse and I was ready to take care of h...

For the record, I don't buy into a theory of a caring. No theory tells me to seek shelter from the rain or find food when I'm hungry and thus no theory tells me when to hold a hand or wipe the sweat from a brow. I don't pretend to disavow the work of...

He was shaken to his core but he faced the surgery with remarkable equanimity and had the amputation knowing that he would have to learn how do things very differently from now on. He plunged gamely into his physical therapy even while still healing ...

The emotional boundary I establish with my patient is an aspect of care I provide. How much involvement is too much? Incidentally, some nurses don't care about how involved they become with their patients on an emotional level. This is very short-sig...

The phone in my pocket rings. I have been an ADN for all of three days now. I am still orienting, though my preceptor scheduled to teach a class while I covered the house. Her presumption of faith in me is both inspiring and terrifying. The er is cal...

G.O.A.T. For those who don't know, GOAT is the acronym for "greatest of all time". Muhammed Ali, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays are just a few names that come to mind when I think of GOATs. I had the privilege to spend time with the best patient advocate I ...

I would like to use this article as the voice of the people in thanking you all for the professionalism that you show us in our times of need. Usually we are so relieved that our loved ones are O.K. that we simply forget to voice our appreciation at ...

The first time I met Joe, I suddenly felt like I was in the presence of my own father who had passed away a few months prior. His stature, the way his blue eyes could tell a story... it was like God giving me this second chance to find some closure a...

I thought I would share this touching story with you. I work on a Palliative/Oncology/General Medicine floor and work mostly nights. We mainly have geriatric patients, but we do have some younger children that are on our floor as well. There is this ...

In the early 90's I was working as a travel nurse in a small town in Wyoming in a 75-bed hospital that was just embarking on the world of computerized charting. I was frustrated as I was used to charting long-hand on paper...hmmmmm, those were the da...

I almost declined because there were plenty of families available, and I didn't know if it was really my place until his wife told me that he had commented: "have Jeff carry me to my grave, I know he won't drop me." I provided care for him twice a da...

I love nursing. No, I am not one of those who finds self-worth through the notion of "helping others." It's actually the opposite, as I get helped by those I nurse whether they know it or not. Their vitality, their spirit, their dedication to living,...