So my heart broke when I saw this patient....

[Da_Milk_of_Amnesia]

I got a late admit last night of a elderly man who came from a SNF with a Femur Fx and was in serious pain...he had a MS pump and they were giving with..Any guesses !?!? More Morphine and was it working !? OF COURSE NOT..so i got a new order for dilaudid and that of course did the trick. When i was assessing this man tho my heart sank and in all honestly I'm not one to get even remotely emotional about things but this man looked sooo incredibly cachectic it was sad, i mean sad I could of nearly cried. You could see just about every bone on his body and I of course probed into why he was this way. He said I havent eaten in like a week because the food at the SNF is just not good and it's not appetizing to me. I nearly started to cry. I said to him, you know you need to eat in order to get better, I said you don't look good at all and I cant be having that. Apparently he used to be 100% independent before a fall that Fx'ed his femur and I guess he's kinda giving up on life. His wife in a SNF with dementia and I can see how he could be so depressed that he's just not eating anymore. So I promised him i would get him a bacon egg and cheese from McDonalds in the morning and i forgot to, so I'm going to go up at lunch time and get him something from boston market and hopefully he eats it...Has anyone else ever done this? Is this acceptable...I honestly could care less if I get into trouble for it, because as I sit here writing this my heart just literally aches for his man...ugh i just feel so bad....idk what to do....i just wish i could make him better instantly but i know that just isn't possible....

[Da_Milk_of_Amnesia, MSN]

"If they're going to write me up for feeding a hungry man then karma is gonna smack them in the back of the head some day!"

Exactly !!! 100%....I mean what are they gonna do tell me I can't do it...it's not like it's wasting hospital money...it was my own money that I made busting my own ass! I def feel the same way tho the smile on his face and the happiness that a simple 7 dollar meal brought him was something that I'll def remember for a while...I'm still kinda on cloud 9 about it lol

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

EMTRN6785 - Good for you!!!! You did what your heart told you was the right thing, and I'm not sure that's something that can be taught in any school. Again...good for you.

[Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN]

So of course I show up on the unit and people are like what the hell are you doing here? And I was like Ohhh nothing..lol and Apparently my NM came up to me and said I just wanted to let you know that Mr. Xxxxx said that you were phenomonal and he put his call bell on because he personally wanted to tell me the great care you gave to him...so keep up the good work..hahah and then another patient I had, the daughter (who is also an RN) was soo thankful for everything I did she wanted to put me in for one of these awards we have at work for like people who follow the Values of the hospital etc and so I was like wahooo 2 good things for the price of one!....

The patient with whom i brought the boston market too tried to give me money and I said I'd feel disrespected if you gave me that. I just want to see you eat and enjoy it thats what you can give me, so I sat down and watched him eat and he said ya know thats the most i've eaten in a week and of course he didnt eat all of it but he ate enough and he was so very thankful and I walked out of there saying this is why I'm a nurse. I said to my mom I said If today doesn't get me into heaven then idk what will, and of course she had to take the wind out of my sail by asking me if I cleaned my room..*** ! lollolol....But my PT was very happy and thankful and it made me feel good, and i guess thats all that matter right ?!

You showed great compassion, but the underlying problem may be bigger then poor food? What was his albumin? Was his fracture a pathological fracture ? Was he depressed and was the depression being treated? Your nursing interventions in this area could help more than one meal ( which was a very kind thing to do).

But if the man has terminal cancer, he may never be able to regain his body weight. Nursing homes get rated poorly when the patient looses weight, so if the nursing home is not addressing this issue they are neglectful and need to be reported.

My guess is that there is a bigger medical issue here, being a nurse advocate you need to ensure the man's condition is being address medically.

Addressing these issues is when nursing makes a difference in a patient's life.

[LTACRN]

I work in an LTAC with vent/trach patients that are critically ill and our hospital is the last stop for most of them. We go out of our way to make them as comfortable as possible whether it be with food, holiday decorations or simply companionship. I look at some of the hospital policy as the minimal you should do because some people wouldn't do that if not in writing. For someone that goes out of their way to make a change for the better in someone's life without being told to do so has a special place in heaven.