From the eyes of a patient

From the eyes of a patient.

How many of us nurses have been patients a time or two?  What do you recall from your experience in the hospital? 

I have been a patient only a handful of times in my life~ thank you Jesus!  I have had 2 children that were delivered in the hospital…one experience, from my patient perspective, was good and one was very bad.  I had a day surgery experience which was wonderful and I have a childhood memory that was horrific.  What is interesting to me about the memories of these experiences is that my barometer of rating the experience is how I was treated by my nurses.  I cannot for a second recall the doctor in most of these experiences…hmmmmmm.

When I had my first child I was 19 years old, married and scared out of my mind!  The labor was long and painful.  The nurses that tended to me during labor and delivery are somewhat of a blur…  After my daughter was a born, that night I was in terrible pain and alone in my room, (babies were taken to the nurse’s station area back then)  I rang my bell to tell the nurse I was in terrible pain with cramping…a very long time seemed to pass…an older nurse came in, didn’t identify herself and said, “what do you want?”  I told her my problem and she said, “What did you expect when you have a baby at 19…it will pass” and she left the room.  I cried myself to sleep.   I didn’t dare to ring that bell or ask a single question after that.

When I was 7 or 8 I was in the hospital for a few days with an acid problem in my stomach.  My mother came and went but at night I was alone.  I only remember one nurse and she had red hair, was overweight and mean.  She practically growled at me from what I recall…the one thing that really sticks out in my mind and I remember it vividly is night she came into my room and told me to roll over.  I was in bed playing don’t break the ice…I asked her why…she said, “I have to check your back for a rash.”  My mother wasn’t there and the other woman patient was gone too…I remember feeling scared but I wasn’t sure why.  I asked the nurse if she was going to give me a shot.  She said no.  I rolled over and she pulled my bottoms down and quickly shoved a needle into my butt cheek and then left the room……I remember just crying and feeling so scared. 

I wonder what was going on with the 2 nurses that I just spoke of?  From what the first nurse said to me I can presume she was hostile towards me because I was 19 and she felt  I was perhaps “loose…” and from the second nurse I can presume she didn’t like children…  either way their attitude toward their patient was disturbing and extremely unprofessional. Maybe they were burnt out? 

I had not thought of these experiences in many years until yesterday when a scared pregnant teenager entered triage and asked where labor and delivery was.  My experience came rushing back like a flood. As I reflected on both of the mentioned experiences I cringed.  I have always made it a practice to enter the patient’s room with a smile, tell them my name and title and then address their issue.  I hope that I have NEVER treated anyone in such a manner as I was treated.  I am thankful for the experiences now and I’m thankful for the recall of them so that I can keep in mind the patient perspective.  Treating people/patients as we want ourselves and our families to be treated should be our motto as a nurse.  I’m thankful for the reminder today. 

Then and Now...

I grew up in a small town in Maine.  My mother was a stay at home mom…my father worked full time and many times, over time, in the local paper mill.  We were not poor but we were not rich.  My brother and I had all the material things that were necessary and a few fun things for birthdays or Christmas.  We did not eat out in restaurants, my mother cooked all of our meals, and if we were sick we stayed home from school and my mother took care of us.  There wasn’t anything that bag balm, duct tape and Vicks couldn’t fix!! 

Thinking back on several childhood illnesses, what I remember, is laying on the couch in my pj’s, comforter and pillow situated so I could see the TV and the famous orange bowl (puke bowl) on the floor by the couch.  I would sleep, puke, run to the bathroom, sip flat cola and nibble on toast until feeling better.  If we had a fever my mother would give us Tylenol and Vicks hot packs.  Sometimes our illness lasted several days and we would remain on that couch until the symptoms passed. I say all of that because it is very troubling for me to see a culture today that is unable to think through how to care for the typical illnesses that run through our communities.

Our healthcare system is out of control with its spending, as is our government with its spending.  I hear from nurses all over the country (ENA) who are concerned for this very thing as well. The abuse of the healthcare system is a hot button topic (one that every ER nurse in the country to go on for hours about!) The ER’s are overcrowded and in that mix is the person who has had a sore throat for 1 day, a child who has been nauseous for 2 hours, a child with a fever for 4 hours and has not had any Tylenol…People do not either know how to care for these basic illnesses or are unwilling to or don’t have the ability to be the stay at home mom with the time to do so.  Quick fixes are what people want. 

As a nurse I am saddened that my role as educator has been removed!  The patient is the consumer now and they do not want to be taught anything…they want us to fix it…give them a magic pill and send them home.  I am sad that we in healthcare have stopped being the patient advocate and the patient has stopped wanting that …teaching them how to help themselves…teaching them how to use natural cures for simple health issues…teaching them that by losing weight and eating healthy foods to help with inflammation that is causing so many of their health crisis…encouraging them to stop smoking, and on and on it goes. 

The patient of this day gets down right angry if the healthcare team tries to encourage healthy behaviors for better health.  Our healthcare employers are concerned about customer satisfaction and thus discourage making the patient uncomfortable in any way…so NO patient education for healthy living, it tends to offend. 

We are not helping our patients by giving into their every demand (like they know more than the doctor what will help their problems), or by handing out prescription pain medication by the handfuls for every possible ailment.  Sadly, as I listen to nurses in every possible nursing field, we are not helping our communities by dumbing down our health care system…by NOT educating our patients with practical and alternative therapies to promote better health.    

Times they have changed, and not for the better in healthcare.  I wonder…if our economy continues to do a nosedive, will healthcare be forced to go back to times of old? 

A little prayer goes a long way!

Driving into work this morning I was admiring the last of the leaves remaining on the trees, realizing that the storm that was headed our way would most likely end the leaf peeping season. My high beams caught shining orange, yellow and red leafs that lined the road way and dangled loosely from outstretched branches.   I thanked God for the beauty that I was able to see on my way to and from work every day…every season.  Right now my commute begins in the dark and ends in the dark!  The amazing part is right now my commute takes me 30 min and at this time of year I get to see the glorious pink and orange sunrise as it peeks up over the trees and water…it is amazing!!  I thanked God numerous times for the beauty that he allowed me to see this morning~ and I felt such a peace and comfort knowing that he heard me!

I do not want to climb on a religious soap box here but I do want to talk about the power of prayer and the effect it has on our patients.  As a Christian I know first -hand the power of prayer in my own life.  I have prayed for miracles and seen them done.  I have prayed for peace and it was delivered.  I have prayed for wisdom, knowledge and guidance and seen the answers. I could go on and on about how prayer has blessed my life.  God uses prayer as a communication tool to him.  We can use prayer as a tool in our arsenal of patient care.

In my nursing research class last semester I did a paper on the healing aspects of prayer in patient care.  The research was qualitative in nature of course but there was also some very quantitative findings as well.  There were several studies that I looked at 1. The patient being prayed for by another, either out loud or silently and 2. the patient doing the praying.  Patient’s vital signs, visual signs of stress/pain were noted and a pre and post prayer session pain scale was used to monitor the effects.

The findings were that if the patients believed in prayer it didn’t matter if they were praying or if another person was praying for them, they felt less anxious, had less pain and vitals decreased….both during and after the prayer. If the person didn’t believe in the power of prayer but accepted the prayers of another there vitals showed a decrease and they also stated less pain but not less anxiety.

Doctors and nurses alike who took part in these studies were profoundly effected as they realized the spiritual nature of each patient and that there are times when prayer works better than the pain meds we so readily push!

I bring this up to just get you thinking…what tools are at your disposal for better patient care. You may not want to pray with someone yourself but you can always ask if they want it and find a clergy or another nurse who would be willing.  I pray for my patients as I care for them all the time, usually in my head as I’m doing my tasks but I have had the amazing privilege of praying for them physically as well.

Prayer is free, it doesn’t take a lot of time, it gets you to focus on the need of your patient in a way that you might not otherwise see, it benefits you just as much as it benefits your patient, the patient feels cared for and cared about as a whole person BODY MIND and SPIRIT… isn’t that what we all want?

Trip down memory lane

I had the awesome privilege of being able to speak to an Associate RN class on my experience with nursing, burn out, self- care and Reiki the other day.  As I stood in front of the class and reflected on my 21 years of experience it struck me how easy it had been to just go along with the motions of every- day life and let the memories fade away. 

As I drove home from that day I thought back to nursing school~  I made a couple of really long lasting friendships from those long study days…shout out to Robin and Kim!!  I also still have close contact with 2 amazing instructors who touched my life in many ways…shout out to Terry and Lynn… I recalled the excitement of imagining being a “real nurse” and the fear of not knowing all I needed to know. In fact I was sooooo green that on my first day of clinical I walked into a male patients room and the side rails of his bed were up, and his urinal was hanging off the side rail….now I was green…very green…. I picked up the urinal and asked him if he would like me to fill his water jug!!  Yup..I thought the urinal was a water jug~~~ for real…  that man laughed so hard and I didn’t know why…after his hysterical laughter he says, “oh my you really are a brand new student nurse aren’t you…honey, I piss in this jug!”  lol.  I have learned a lot since then!!  lol

 I remember the pride of the pinning ceremony and of graduation…wearing my professional nurse uniform (white dress with white hose and white shoes and yes a white cap) to my first day of work J.  I have very fond memories of my nursing preceptor Laverne~ who treated me so kindly and taught me so much about being a professional, caring nurse. 

I have had the privilege of working in many different settings and with many different patient populations,  medsurg, post op ortho, homecare/hospice, emergency room….I can say the ER is my favorite as it gives you the variety of cases that are different every day and the rush of a trauma or an MI…being able to intervene and really save someone’s life is amazing!! 

What I shared with that class the other day again cemented for me that patient care is not just about all the technical things we know how to do and love to do….it’s about touching someone’s life in a positive way…I often times forget that and that is when burnout hits me the hardest…The patient does not give 2 hoots that you can read their EKG and intervene, or that you can start their IV, draw their blood, hang their medications, dress their wounds or collect evidence from every orifice known to man!!!  They only care that you, the nurse, gives 2 hoots that they are there…that your eyes and face convey to them that you are listening to them, caring that they are in pain, offer them a warm blanket and a hand to hold…now I’m not saying our nursing skills are not important, because we all know if we do not perform those skills well the patient will notice!  But we could mess up every skill we have and if we have sat with that patient for 10 min, held their hand or given them a warm blanket and a warm smile…they think we are the best nurse on the planet!!  I don’t know about you but my thank you cards from patients NEVER mention my awesome skills…but they always mention the warm blanket and the caring smile. 

Here’s to remembering your early years as a student…a new nurse…and why you love nursing…take some time to think back to those early days…it’s a fun recall J

Apparently I always wanted to be a nurse

     So I got home from work last night and on my counter was a book "all about me" that my mother had sent in the mail~  it was one of those kindergarden through 12th grade books...including pictures! and comments about friends and aspirations, grades and boyfriends... you know the kind...
      My husband was dying to flip through it with me (he already had looked at it!!) and laugh at my ongoing short bobbed hair cut that had a few layering variations...and comment on the outfits I chose to wear for the first day back to school...I had to laugh as well as we looked at them~~~I always thought I looked so cute! 
I will never make fun of the photo's of him wearing his orange tough skins again!!  (ok so I probably will :) )
       I enjoyed looking at the book and remembering some old times, and some outfits I really thought were awesome!!  but what I noticed most was the running theme of, what do you want to be when you grow up, my career choice~  Since Kindergarden I either wanted to be a nurse or a teacher...one year I said  I wanted to work with children...how, Im not sure...But nurse won out with the most votes of 7. 
       At this stage in my life I want to be an educated nurse!..hahhhahaha..
       Looking back at the school girl book has been a gift in a few ways...one, it brings me back to some very fun times in my life...two, it shows me NEVER to wear my hair that short again...three, it has given me a kick in the pants to get exercising again ...as my weight has dramatically increased since graduation!!  four, it has given me the gift of showing me that I have always wanted to be a nurse...and that being burnt out in the every day grind is different than being burnt out with nursing. 
       The gift of being a nurse is so multi layered ...besides the patient care aspect of touching people's lives physically and emotionally, we get the gift of having a profession that takes us anywhere we want to go...the ER, the OR, ICU, NICU, Med-Surg, School nursing, Clinic nursing, home health, hospice, Nurse Educator, Flight nurse, Interventional Radiology, Psych nursing, travel nursing, Clinical nurse specialist in many fields, NP....and on and on it goes~ 
        Where are you in nursing now??? Where do you want to go????