What is your favorite nursing memory?

allnurses Guide · Feb 27, 2012

One is: the time there was a scared little 7 or 8 year old with a broken arm, going to surgery from the ER. The doc and his nurse were getting impatient with him, parents were kind of lost, and this poor little kid was doing his best to be brave but not doing real well.

I stopped what I was doing (charge that night, no specific patients of my own), sat next to him and paid attention just to the kid. Talked to him, not over him, told him what was going on, got him calmed down, told him being scared was okay, what to expect, and to ask for something when it hurt after he woke up. He mellowed out just fine, parents thanked me, and the doc said later thank you and he was glad someone had realized what was going on with the kid, that he realized he wasn't really in tune with what was happening with the kid until I stepped in.

SandyStudent · Feb 27, 2012

This reminds me of when I was a kid in the hospital. I was scared and lonely. One day I just felt alone when a nurse came in and was just a friend, who talked to me. She just lifted my spirits. Though I cannot remember her name, her smile and her memory are still with me, 25 years later.

cathrn64 · Feb 27, 2012

I am a home health nurse. Years ago, I had a pt who was a quad (also happened to be in the mediacal field). The pt had a very large sacral wound. (took up the entire buttock). The pt was also noncomplient with the regime.(turning, bowel program etc) When I was doing wound care, I took a picture of the wound. (this was long enough ago, that it was a polaroid!) When it developed, I asked the pt "Do you want to see your wound?" The pt said "no" A few minutes later curiosity took over and the pt said "I'd like to see that picture" The pt saw the pic and was able to look at it clinically, and said "look at the maceration, and slough" The next time I saw the pt they (pt and spouse) were compling with the plan of care and were concidering surgery, which they had previously refused. (I took another job and never got to see the end result, but I heard it was good)

dgh1009 · Feb 27, 2012

As a nurse I am fortunate to have many good memories, but one day that stands out is a day many years ago when I was working as a student on L&D at a charity hospital here in Houston. The conditions were grimly basic and the pace of births steadily frantic. I went into delivery to observe and assist when the patient had an incomplete detachment of the placenta and started to bleed out. She was starting to panic. I explained that her baby and I would be sharing a birthday. She took that as a positive sign and kept talking to me, saying, "I know everything will be okay because my baby was born on my nurse's birthday." She remained conscious and made a recovery, as did her birthday baby. I think of them every year.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Feb 27, 2012

One of the main reasons I became a nurse in the first place was the OB nurse who worked the 3-11 shift at the hospital where I gave birth to my third child over 26 years ago. This woman was my angel in every sense of the word during the entire hospitalization, which lasted much longer than usual because I first got a horrific spinal headache, then went septic the night after my C-section.

I never did know why she thought I was special, but each night she would come in toward the end of her shift, warm some lotion in her hands, and do an old-fashioned back rub for upwards of 15-20 minutes. This was after she had given me a bed bath, brushed out my long hair and changed my linens, administered pain meds, and hung my IV antibiotic. She told me she knew what spinal headaches felt like; she also felt bad for me because I was so ill. But her caring went above and beyond anything I'd ever experienced since my grandmother---also a nurse---passed away in 1972. Everything she did for me was done with tenderness, as if I were a treasured child instead of her patient; and despite all the pain and confusion and fear, her calm presence reassured me that I wasn't going to die, even though I was terrified I might and no one could promise me I wouldn't.

Though I never saw her again after I finally got well enough to go home, she has walked the corridors with me during many of my own long, hard shifts over the years. Sometimes, it seems as though she is ministering to my patients, through my hands, whenever I hold a sobbing elderly woman and help her to deal with her first day in assisted living......gently soak off an old dressing rather than pull it from fragile skin.......or close the eyes of a resident who just breathed his last.

:redbeathe

P_RN, ADN, RN · Feb 27, 2012

When I first went on 3-11 shift the Assistant NM who had been a Nurse for over 40+ years told me "Oh Patrice, I just love it when I get to work with you." (Not my name in fact but what she always called me) I LOVED that lady with her starched white long sleeved Uniform, her starched white school cap, her highly polished Clinic shoes....Oh Mrs Hollis, I miss you so very much!! She passed in 85 but her spirit and her teaching still linger in a lot of Nurses we know.

mommold · Feb 27, 2012

It always amazes and touches me that when you go to work and don't quite feel right, and your sickest patient is concerned that I don't feel well.

maelstrom143 · Feb 27, 2012

Goodness, there are so many patients that roam my memories w/affection. However, there was one little old man. He was so very emaciated and sick and his resources were exhausted. Doc had him on drips and IVF to keep vitals stable, but said the man was dying, anyway, just a matter of time. The fluids were seeping into his tissues and his skin was translucent. He cried out and whimpered every time we repositioned him. He was a full code. It broke my heart.

When his daughter arrived, I took her aside and explained the care we were doing in detail, the rationale, and what doctors thought was happening. She asked me what I thought. So I was honest with her, explaining that she should not base her decisions on what I thought but on what she wanted for her father's last few hours. Later that night, more family came in, the daughter approached me and asked for a DNR and that we remove all the fluids and drips from her dad. She thanked me with tears running down her face, telling me how grateful she was for the honesty so that she could make sure her father's last few hours would be comfortable.

My patient passed away peacefully and without obvious pain, w/his family at bedside, at 6 am, as a gorgeous pale sunrise came into being.

GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 27, 2012

undoubtedly, one of my favorite memories in nursing would be after hurricane katrina struck new orleans, our facility gathered some volunteers to assist in the disaster; i had the privilege to be among those nurses. furthermore, imbedded in my mind as we witness first hand, the deaths, and the separated families by the destruction and countless stories of homelessness; as they refer to us as their "les anges de la miséricorde" ( angels of mercy). having said that, among the chaos and desolation in the faces of so many, one could still see their hope,and perseverance. unquestionably, the camaraderie among us nurses became the strength we needed, to serve those in need in the mist of such deplorable devastation.

Brian, ASN, RN · Feb 29, 2012

Great stories! Keep them coming!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 29, 2012

i got to fly in a small airplane to small rural airports to pick up organ donors or critically ill folks to come to our hotshot place. once i was up above the countryside at just after dawn, and looked down and saw what looked just like a field full of big pinkish-grey gumdrops. really. it took me a minute to realize they were sheep, side-lit by the rising sun.

the bracketing memory was an evening run. we got to this small airport and there was no control tower, but they had us call ahead when we were close sp they could turn on the lights for us. we did, and as we came down i saw we were approaching a grass field...and it was covered with rabbits. it was a warm night and the paramedics who picked us up were wearing shorts, and they played "jeremiah was a bullfrog" at top volume on the rig's sound system. sweet run.