Moments: Episode 4

I have no clever introduction. Here we go!

-Pt with bipolar disorder refers to me as 'Nursey'. She calls out to me as I walk by her room. 'Nursey! Come here Nursey!'

-I take care of a lady for 3 nights in a row. She developed a rare condition that caused all of her skin to peel off. The first day I took care of her, she was peeling everywhere and cuts in her skin from where it would rub off. By the end of the third day, she was so much cleaner. She literally looked like a different person. Brand new skin.

-Lady (who seems to be in her right mind) puts on her call light. I walk in and ask, 'can I help you?' She asks me if I can find her glasses. 'They're on your head ma'am.' A few minutes later she yells out to the nurses station. I walk in and ask the same question. She asks me if I could find her the call light. 'It's right here under your arm ma'am.' An hour later, the call light goes off again. I walk in, yada yada yada. She's digging through her sheets and asks me to help her find the towel I had brought in earlier. It was resting on the table.

-A confused patient is screaming profanities in his room. We walk in to give him some sedation. He looks right at us, tells us to hold one for one minute, then he proceeds to turn to the wall and resume the conversation.

-A patient who spoke very little English was very appreciative of the care I had given her. Unfortunately, she only knew one compliment. 'You cute.' I would take her to the bathroom and she would tell me I was cute. I would give her medication, and I was cute. I would wake her up at three in the morning to get her vital signs, but by golly I was cute.

- I had a patient who was in her nineties and didn't really speak, but would mumble/moan incoherently. I took care of her three nights in a row, and she actually seemed to be improving. One night, I walked in and heard her moaning when I made out the word 'Jesus'. I realized that she might actually be singing. I asked her if she was singing songs. She smiled and nodded.

-An eager family member insisted that I crush her grandmother's pills in applesauce so she could swallow them easier. I happily obliged, but once the family member left, my patient said to me, "I can swallow them just fine, but just don't tell my grandaughter!"

-I had a patient come in and hand me the list of his medications for his admission. I couldn't read it at all. He then handed me a bag with the actual medications in them. I took them out of the bag and realized I had no idea what they said. They were medications directly from Poland. I spent the next hour with a pharmacist trying to figure it out. It was tricky seeing as some of the medications aren't even authorized in the U.S.

- I spent the better part of a night changing the incontinence pads from under a lady who would ask to be changed every fifteen minutes. When you rolled her over, she would leak a little bit and need to be changed again. It was nearly continuous.

-I took care of a lady for three nights, and she remained on the floor for about a week after that. I would go and visit her even though she wasn't my patient. She would say, 'Oh there's my buddy!' We would talk for a few minutes, and then we would pray for each other. She didn't have any family, and it was a privilege to be more than just a nurse to her.

-I was sitting at the nurse's station and doing some charting when a family member came up and asked me to give her mother's nurse a message. I took the message, but then asked her if she was ok. We ended up talking for 10 minutes. She ended up in tears because she had to make decisions about sending her mom to hospice. At the end, she thanked me just for listening.

-I have seen so many pictures of children and grandchildren and dogs and vacations....

That's all I've got for now. I've got to go get ready for my 12 hour shift followed by 4 hours of class. Here we go. Wish me luck.

-C-