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The Patient Who Makes Me Love the Nursing Profession
This is happened when I was still a student nurse. At first I don't really like to become a nurse, I've never even imagined myself to be a nurse. But this particular patient made me change my mind. We were assigned in Intensive Care Unit and a patient that was given to me is an unconscious old woman who has been there for a month. I was assigned to be her student nurse, mostly of the patient in their unfortunately did not survived. She is the only who survived. Everyday of my duty, I just do everything my Clinical Instructor asked me to do, you know?? just being a good student and to have a good grades. She has a lots of medicines that was incorporated with her IV fluid, asides from IV fluid medication their is also oral medication which we introduced through her Nasogastric tube . She is the typical ICU patient. One day while I was waiting for the time for her next medication, I was holding her hand and started talking to her. I told her that her family always here in the hospital, waiting for her to wake up. That she had to fight, don't lose hope. And I was shocked when she squeezes my hand, I thought it was just a motor reaction or nerves, stuff like that. So I asked her to squeeze my hand twice if she hears what I'm saying, and she did. The feeling is so overwhelming!! Since then I always talked to her, I told her whats happening outside, but just the good news. And she is squeezing my hand, if she has to answer yes she had to squeeze twice, once for no. Everyday her condition is improving. Unfortunately we were assigned in a different ward, I wasn't able to see her come out in A comma. Even though my duty is not in ICU, I always go there to asked my clinical instructor if she's still there. And then after two days my former instructor said that she is in a ward and just recovering and hopefully to be discharged. After that incident, I totally embrace the NURSING PROFESSION with all my heart. I love it, I love taking care of people specially in their vulnerable situation. I love the feeling of seeing them being discharged and be with their family. Their simple "thank you", it's overwhelming for me. Now I am an RN and proud to be one!!!
Neonatal Nurse Saves Infant's Life
This is a story I read about in the book "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I thought it was a really inspirational example of stepping outside our "proper place" when we are passionate about something.
The nurse was working in the neonatal intensive-care unit where newborns with serious health problems are treated and monitored. She'd been watching one baby in particular for several hours, and she didn't like what she was seeing. His color, a key indicator of potential problems, had been fluctuating -- wavering between a healthy shade of pink and a duller, more troublesome hue.
Suddenly, within a matter of seconds, the baby turned a deep blue-black. The nurse's stomach fell. Others in the ICU yelled for an X-ray technician and a doctor.
The gathering medical team was operating on the assumption that the baby's lung had collapsed, a common problem for babies on ventilators. The team prepared for the typical response to a collapsed lung, which involves piercing the chest and inserting a tube to suck the air from around the collapsed lung, allowing it to reinflate.
But the nurse thought it was a heart problem. As soon as she saw the baby's color -- that awful blue-black -- she suspected a pneumopericardium, a condition in which air fills the sac surrounding the heart, pressing inward and preventing the heart from beating. The nurse was terrified, because the last time she witnessed a pneumopericardium the baby died before the problem would even be diagnosed.
The nurse tried to stop the frantic preparations to treat the lung. "It's the heart!" she said. But in response the other medical personnel pointed to the heart monitor, which showed that the baby's heart was fine; his heart rate was bouncing along steadily, at the normal newborn rate of 130 beats per minute. The nurse, still insistent, pushed their hands away and screamed for quiet as she lowered a stethoscope to check for a heartbeat.
There was no sound -- the heart was not beating.
She started doing compressions on the baby's chest. The chief neonatologist burst into the room and the nurse slapped a syringe in his hand. "It's a pneumopericardium," she said. "Stick the heart."
The X-ray technician, who was finally receiving results from his scan, confirmed the nurse's diagnosis. The neonatologist guided the syringe into the heart and slowly released the air that had been strangling the baby's heart. The baby's life was saved. His color slowly returned to normal.
Later, the group realized why the heart monitor misled them. It is designed to measure electrical activity, not actual heartbeats. The baby's heart nerves were firing -- telling the heart to beat at the appropriate rate -- but the air in the sac around the heart prevented the heart from actually beating. Only when the nurse used the stethoscope -- so she could hear whether the heart was pumping correctly -- did it become clear that his heart had stopped.
The nurse was working in the neonatal intensive-care unit where newborns with serious health problems are treated and monitored. She'd been watching one baby in particular for several hours, and she didn't like what she was seeing. His color, a key indicator of potential problems, had been fluctuating -- wavering between a healthy shade of pink and a duller, more troublesome hue.
Suddenly, within a matter of seconds, the baby turned a deep blue-black. The nurse's stomach fell. Others in the ICU yelled for an X-ray technician and a doctor.
The gathering medical team was operating on the assumption that the baby's lung had collapsed, a common problem for babies on ventilators. The team prepared for the typical response to a collapsed lung, which involves piercing the chest and inserting a tube to suck the air from around the collapsed lung, allowing it to reinflate.
But the nurse thought it was a heart problem. As soon as she saw the baby's color -- that awful blue-black -- she suspected a pneumopericardium, a condition in which air fills the sac surrounding the heart, pressing inward and preventing the heart from beating. The nurse was terrified, because the last time she witnessed a pneumopericardium the baby died before the problem would even be diagnosed.
The nurse tried to stop the frantic preparations to treat the lung. "It's the heart!" she said. But in response the other medical personnel pointed to the heart monitor, which showed that the baby's heart was fine; his heart rate was bouncing along steadily, at the normal newborn rate of 130 beats per minute. The nurse, still insistent, pushed their hands away and screamed for quiet as she lowered a stethoscope to check for a heartbeat.
There was no sound -- the heart was not beating.
She started doing compressions on the baby's chest. The chief neonatologist burst into the room and the nurse slapped a syringe in his hand. "It's a pneumopericardium," she said. "Stick the heart."
The X-ray technician, who was finally receiving results from his scan, confirmed the nurse's diagnosis. The neonatologist guided the syringe into the heart and slowly released the air that had been strangling the baby's heart. The baby's life was saved. His color slowly returned to normal.
Later, the group realized why the heart monitor misled them. It is designed to measure electrical activity, not actual heartbeats. The baby's heart nerves were firing -- telling the heart to beat at the appropriate rate -- but the air in the sac around the heart prevented the heart from actually beating. Only when the nurse used the stethoscope -- so she could hear whether the heart was pumping correctly -- did it become clear that his heart had stopped.
Holy Water
Here's a good one! I noticed a little bottle of what looked like water on my elderly female patient's bedside table. I inquired as to what it was. She said, "Oh, that's holy water...why don't you take that--you need it more than I do". I wasn't sure if I should have been honored or offended!?!