Treat your patient like you would want your mother to be treated

[awakenthepassion]

Don't you wonder why your patients put so much trust on you as their nurse? A person whom they met for no longer than a day. A person who is responsible for giving them a medication that is supposed to make them get better, but most don't even second-guess you whether you are giving the correct medication or if their IV fluids are running at the right rate. Nope, majority of your patients probably just lay in their bed smiling and thanking you for caring for them without any second thought that you are giving them the best care you possibly can.

But is that really true? Are you really providing your patients the best nurse you can be? For some yes! But for others they have other intentions: they are focused on why did my sister get in a fight earlier that day, did I turn off the stove before I left the house, or god I can't wait to get out of where! Wow, isn't that amazing! Here you have lets say 5 patients whom are relying and trusting you to provide them with the best nursing care imaginable and that they deserve without them even knowing more than your name and that you work at that facility. And here you are as a nurse, with million and one other things on your mind much less the human being right in front of you. I am not saying that all nurses are like this, but you must admit to yourself that you may have at least one day where you may not have performed your personal best.

So, what are we to do? They say that nurses are the highest respected and honest profession in the nation. How do you contribute to a profession with such prestige and honor? How can you help your profession maintain this honor? Well, I believe it is with a simple and powerful saying of treating your patient, as you would want your mother to be treated. Think about it, if you looked at your patient as though she were your mother, I'm sure you would do whatever it takes to them the best nursing care you could. Imagine how satisfying you would feel to that you did your best for that patient. Moreover, imagine how your patient would feel? I'm pretty sure their respect and trust in not just you but also the facility that you work at would grow immensely.

"Focus on the Patients. Treat each patient as though she were your mother." This is the first piece of advice that I gave the nursing students that I had the wonderful opportunity to precept. I remember how terrified my student and my patient were when he listened to the patient's lungs for the first time. One of my nursing students mentally prepared himself before he waked into the room, he said I need to assess the patient head-to-toe and check the patient's vital signs. Well, lets just say that if he was completely focused on the tasks that he had to do that he just walked into the room stuck the blood pressure cuff on the patient and started listening to the patient's lungs with his stethoscope. I could tell the patient wasn't to pleased and neither was I even though we spent 5 minutes out of the patient's room on the importance of introducing yourself and informing the patient about what you are going to do before doing it.

I then spoke to him after the assessment and vital signs were checked out of the room, I asked him if that patient ere his mother, would he have approached the patient that way? Would he want a nurse who was taking care of his mother to walk into a room a stick a cuff on her arm and start listening to her lungs? He said no, he wouldn't he would want the nurse to tell his mother what he was going to do so that she could be prepared for what the nurse able to do. I stressed the importance to focus on the patient, notice that these are just people like you and me, they on a daily basis get touched by anyone maybe less than 10% each day by a stranger, so when these patients are in the hospital they are in a very vulnerable state and probably being touched more the 100% than what they are used to on a daily basis from nurse, doctors, therapists, so focus on the patient, focus on the care rather than the task.

Caring for a patient is yes has a lot to do with the nursing skill and performing certain nursing procedure to help the patient to get better, but it's the way we approach these tasks that makes the difference between focusing on the task rather than the patient. Just think of how satisfying you would feel at the end of your shift, the year, or even the end of your career if your knew that you provided your patients with the best nursing you could. Just think of the positive fulfillment you could feel knowing that with all your education and experience, and knowledge, you did your best to treat your patients with a human touch and not a line of patients... like they were the person you most respected in your life, your mother!

[lenovo]

Thank you for that inspiring messages.

Nursing is a my calling and I love being a nurse.

you're definitely correct that we, nurses, need to focus more to our patient because we are dealing with human lives.

[noreenl]

This is the statement that I used in the final class before clinicals at CNA classes I taught! When u say "Treat someone the way u want to be treated," it doesn't carry the same impact as "Treat these rsidents the way you would want your mother to be treated." Sorry Dads but Mom wins in this one!!!

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Suppose you didn't like your mother?

[cherryames1949]

With emphasis on cost containment and profit margins, holistic care is often forgotten. Kindness and empathy can go a long way to helping a patient feel safe and secure. Doing a competent job is appreciated but is often not enough. As demonstrated in many of our recent threads, that extra few minutes, a touch, or just listening, can make a huge difference to someone's well being and recovery. When we treat our patients ,they are at their most vulnerable. The patients and families remember that extra caring, long after their illness, whether the outcome was good or not.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Ummm, well if they gave her entire MS contin dose in one IV dose and pushed it fast...that would be cool. But I doubt I'd get a promotion if I did that at work.

[ms_orion]

amazing: a man who had never ever been sick, never been to a physician or hospital...had a stroke. difficult to understand him when he spoke...as he recovered and was able to speak "better"...he reached for my hand. i held his hand and listened..."you are a great nurse, the best". "why do you say that", i asked him. his reply (i will never forget).........."because you treat me like a human being".

[sicma39]

That was amazing thanks for your passion as well as your compassion!! We often forget how we touch others lives at their most vulnerable times. What makes it all worth while is when we realize our lives have been touched too.

[shukri]

First of all Thank you for reminding Nurses about their role and how they are expected to treat patients...

As amatter of fact, they are the actual " extention " of the motherhood in any living society..

May God Bless Them.