Please share when your intuition has saved or helped a patient or when has your intuition helped in other areas of your life?
What is intuition? How would you describe it? How could others develop theirs?
Have you ever felt what your patient is feeling? Chest pain when they have chest pain? etc. Are you too empathic? If so, how do you manage it, so it doesn't disempower you?
Or is intuition really experience along with knowledge?
As a young nurse, I had an obese mom come in to be ready for c section in am. I went in to check FHTs (as CNA had done VS) and though the baby heart tones were 150s , something was weird,and distant. I checked MOM at same time,and her pulse was 150. Called the Resident, who said , she is just nervous, calm her down, or we can get her something. But something was not right. She had no pain, no abd. rigiidity, just looking forward to this baby. Labs came back, Hgb. was 3.4- called the attending, ordered stat blood, and us . It appeared that the uterus had ruptured, and she had been bleeding for a long time. When they got her to surgery, the baby was "floating in a pool of blood. Of course, they had to do a hysterectomy. Funny thing was this had happened quite awhile ago, as the baby was only 3# something.Mom ended up in ICU, and the next day , of course, I got floated to ICU. The story about this mom was so sad. She had had 7 pregnancies, and this was the first she got close to term (was 38 weeks). In addition, she ended up with this hugh rash all over as she was allergic to all the tape. I dreaded going in that room, not knowing what I was going to say. When I entered she said to me: "Don't look so lost. This is God's will." I told her I was sorry, and yet it was she who comforted me. I don't think I will ever forget her. I always hoped she got to be a mother one day, though adoption, or whatever
As a nurse, I have had to be really careful not to take on what my patient is experiencing. I am not just talking about the emotional stress of being physically ill and all the tragedy that surrounds people in that situation. I will actually physically feel what they are feeling.
How common is that out there with us nurses?
Has anyone else had to deal with that?
I am a new RN and am a former massage therapist. In massage therapy school an instructor taught a simple affirmation to say before working on clients. "What's mine is mine, what's theirs is theirs." To me, this means that anything I'm dealing with in my life is mine and vice versa. What you are describing is that you are 'empathic'. There are so many things you can do to help you not take on other people's 'stuff'. It helps to know there are tools to use to keep the focus on the pt. AND help us as nurses avoid being drained physically and emotionally.
I was very lucky. Our docs would sit up and take notice whenever a nurse had that 'feeling' that something wasn't right.
I overheard one of them tell a student who was shadowing him to never blow off a nurse's concern, even if the objective data pointed to everything being ok. Always look at the patient... regardless of what vitals signs or monitors or lab tests may say.
Recently the RT left my vent patient's room. Now I can SEE in the room from the desk. Nothing out of the ordinary on the monitor. I was trying to eat. I absolutely had to get up and go in the room to check on her. She had d/c'ed the vent from the cannula, and the reason alarms weren't going off is that the RT had just silenced them before leaving the room. And we weren't in the middle of a spontaneous trial, or CPAP, or anything at the time, she did need the vent. She was diaphoretic and a tad panicky when I got to her.
Nothing like a big ole baseball bat over my head type of warning to listen to my gut.
Then there was last week. I read tele one night. By gosh when I decide to do something I really do it... there was one lady who had a-fib with a 1.8 second pause on her initial strip. Okay. Well I'm not going to get excited about that, but I called her nurse and let her know to be careful with the cardiac meds, etc. Four hours go by. Then she does it again. Fine, I print it and call it and her nurse says she's asleep and no I didn't give her anything that'll do that.
Then she did her pause thing every 20 mins, then every 15, then every ten, etc. I was on the phone so much, and I thought, well, it doesn't affect the heart rate too much, she is entitled to sleep yano, don't get so excited, it's just slower A fib. The more I reasoned the circumstances, the worse my innards felt. I was getting ill looking at the strips (several pages worth) on this woman. Couldn't stop, kept wondering what I missed... because if it has this much of my attention, I must have missed something.
Yah. It wasn't no less-than-two-second pause. It was three or four seconds and getting longer, with escape beats. What I took for the beat at the end of the pause was a ventricular beat. They just didn't look like ventricular beats until I'd seen 'em for the ninetieth time... I tell ya, when it hit me what it was, I got cold and sweaty and nauseous, and my knees got weak. The charge nurse got yet another phone call and the patient got a cardiologist consult. Turns out, she'd had cardizem, lopressor and digoxin, pretty good sized doses. Sleeping, indeed! If she'd gotten her AM meds!!
Specializes in ER/Nuero/PHN/LTC/Skilled/Alzheimer's.
Once in a while when I worked gero or LTC at night, I'd get a feeling to go check such-and-such pt and usually find them either falling out of bed or trying to get out of bed and had disconnected the tag alarms. One time I did have an Alzheimer's pt who had been refusing food and meds and the other nurses were saying that she was "fading" or starting to die basically. She looked sick to me but her VS were fine. Called the doc and he said that if the family was willing to send her out to the ER, he trusted my instinct. Glad I did, she needed a lap choley and was fine after that.
I'm now starting in ER and two nights ago while in triage got a 78 yr old female complaining of back pain for five hours. She was alert and oriented w/o SOB but looked a little red in the face. Something was telling me to put her back into a room even though we were almost full. I checked her VS and her BP was SKY HIGH, like 200s over 100s. We did a cardiac workup and she was having herself a big ol' MI.
I don't know if we intuitively know something or if we can just look at enough pts. over time to know when someone is sick without throwing off their VS or labs.
Tuesday...yucky day in general...all of our wanderers were wandering everywhere...I gave more PRNs in one day than I normally give in a week. But...the day was actually going well...and I was going to go home on time. Two CNAs on the evening shift were in with a resident...the other had clocked out for supper break. I was checking a blood sugar and heard the chapel door alarm. I couldn't leave the resident I was checking and I also had one of our wanderers with me so I hoped someone from one of the offices or dietary would check the alarm. They didn't. So...I finished what I was doing, pushed my wanderer's wheelchair into the SSD's office and ran down to the chapel. One of our wanderers was sitting by the door...she has a habit of opening doors but not going out, so I almost turned around and went back to the desk. But...I decided to go over and talk to the resident. She looked at me and smiled and said, "I held the door open for her, but she just walked out without holding it for me!" I stepped outside and saw a lady who is not a known wanderer walking down the street. I caught up to her as she walked into the gas station across the street. I called the nursing home and told them where I was, took her inside and bought her a bottle of water (it was 102° outside), and walked back to the nursing home with her. If I hadn't gone over to talk to the wanderer, the non-wanderer might have been gone until supper time before we noticed she was gone. A very close call...
Intuition is one of those intangibles in life. How would you help people develop theirs or learn to trust it? How do you know if a certain thought or feeling is really intuition??
Nursing is an extension of the mother role so is teaching and social work.
It would explain why such emphasis is put on "critical thinking" I dont know if you can actually teach that skill...i think it comes more natural to some and others have to get help with new ideas, new thinking.
Mothering requires critical thinking and alot of it is intuitive...from what Ive experienced personally. With patient care...ive felt that angel on my shoulder...sooo many times. Even with other aspects...reviewing..compliancy..safety..even the sense that another employee is in trouble w/patient or situation at the other end of building!!
I vote for listening closely....my angels have my back!!
Nursing is an extension of the mother role so is teaching and social work.
It would explain why such emphasis is put on "critical thinking" I dont know if you can actually teach that skill...i think it comes more natural to some and others have to get help with new ideas, new thinking.
Mothering requires critical thinking and alot of it is intuitive...from what Ive experienced personally. With patient care...ive felt that angel on my shoulder...sooo many times. Even with other aspects...reviewing..compliancy..safety..even the sense that another employee is in trouble w/patient or situation at the other end of building!!
I vote for listening closely....my angels have my back!!
just getting ready to start nursing school, but i do have a good story from this week...
it was tuesday night and i went to bed, my bf was out with the guys watching the all star game so i wasn't about to try and wait up. i needed a good night's sleep so i took a couple benadryl and was out like a light. i wake up in a panic around 6:00 am b/c i had dreamed that a friend had called to tell me something happened to my bf, but she was so upset i couldn't understand her. so i called my bf's mother and she was getting ready to say what happened when i woke up. bf wasn't in bed, ran to the living room to see if he fell asleep out there... no sign of him. i call his cell three times, no answer. so i lay back down trying to calm myself and telling me that he's probably just fine. a little before 7 he walks through the door confused, paranoid, and just out of it. someone had dosed one of his drinks w/ some sort of psychotropic. i called into work and stayed with him, i eventually got him to calm down (even though he had no idea who i was) and he fell asleep.
just getting ready to start nursing school, but i do have a good story from this week...
it was tuesday night and i went to bed, my bf was out with the guys watching the all star game so i wasn't about to try and wait up. i needed a good night's sleep so i took a couple benadryl and was out like a light. i wake up in a panic around 6:00 am b/c i had dreamed that a friend had called to tell me something happened to my bf, but she was so upset i couldn't understand her. so i called my bf's mother and she was getting ready to say what happened when i woke up. bf wasn't in bed, ran to the living room to see if he fell asleep out there... no sign of him. i call his cell three times, no answer. so i lay back down trying to calm myself and telling me that he's probably just fine. a little before 7 he walks through the door confused, paranoid, and just out of it. someone had dosed one of his drinks w/ some sort of psychotropic. i called into work and stayed with him, i eventually got him to calm down (even though he had no idea who i was) and he fell asleep.
scary day for both of us.
That sounds terrifying!!! Is he ok? You had an intuitive dream!!
purple1953reading
132 Posts
As a young nurse, I had an obese mom come in to be ready for c section in am. I went in to check FHTs (as CNA had done VS) and though the baby heart tones were 150s , something was weird,and distant. I checked MOM at same time,and her pulse was 150. Called the Resident, who said , she is just nervous, calm her down, or we can get her something. But something was not right. She had no pain, no abd. rigiidity, just looking forward to this baby. Labs came back, Hgb. was 3.4- called the attending, ordered stat blood, and us . It appeared that the uterus had ruptured, and she had been bleeding for a long time. When they got her to surgery, the baby was "floating in a pool of blood. Of course, they had to do a hysterectomy. Funny thing was this had happened quite awhile ago, as the baby was only 3# something.Mom ended up in ICU, and the next day , of course, I got floated to ICU. The story about this mom was so sad. She had had 7 pregnancies, and this was the first she got close to term (was 38 weeks). In addition, she ended up with this hugh rash all over as she was allergic to all the tape. I dreaded going in that room, not knowing what I was going to say. When I entered she said to me: "Don't look so lost. This is God's will." I told her I was sorry, and yet it was she who comforted me. I don't think I will ever forget her. I always hoped she got to be a mother one day, though adoption, or whatever