I hope by telling my nursing experience story that it will make you think about a special patient that you had the opportunity to take care of. The night before my first day of clinical I was excited and nervous. I did not know what type of patient I would have and I did not know if nursing was truly for me. I remember lying in bed praying to God to please not let my first patient be a man because I did not know how to take care of a male patient (at least that is what I thought). I kept thinking I have only seen my husband naked I don’t want to see another man naked and I definitely did not want to give one a bath. I know that this is naïve but this is how I felt at the time. The next morning I still was praying to God about not having a male patient as I got ready. I made it to the hospital and I sat in front of the teacher and listened to her tell each student there assignment. When she got to my name she told me the patient’s room number and the name and of course it was a male patient and all I could do was laugh on the inside. I just was trying to figure out why God did not answer that pray and I did not know how I was going to make it as a nurse if I could not get passed this one fear. I went to listen to report with the nurse who had my patient and in report the nurse told us about the patient. He was an elderly man who just found out that he had brain cancer. She added that he was mean and she looked at me and told me that he would probably curse me out and that she did not know how well he would do having a nursing student. My teacher heard the report. Of course I really got nervous and I was almost in tears thinking about what I have gotten myself into. Before I could go meet the patient I had to go into another room and I just said a little pray and started walking towards the patient’s room. The teacher stopped me and told me if the patient really did not want a student that she would change my rooms. On the way to the room I thought about what we talked about in class the day before. The teacher said sometimes in report the nurses give you impressions about a patient and you take that thought with you when you meet the person. You may be the cause of the conflict experience because you had your mind set for attitude about the patient before you even met them.
Sometimes it could just be a personality conflict between the previous nurse and patient. She told us not to get caught up with that kind of attitude. So before I walked into the room I took a deep breath walked in and introduced myself. I tried not to let my nerves get the best of me and I sat down asked the patient could I help him get a bath and change his sheets I took his vital signs without a hint of attitude. He had me set him up for a bath and he told me he could bath himself and while he bath I changed the sheets on his bed and my teacher came by the room and saw that we were getting alone and then she made the commit that he need to shave. He was too shaky to shave himself so I had to do it. This made me nervous again because I had never shaved anyone before so this was a new thing for me. The man was so kind and he teased me about how I was shaving him. He said he had never had anyone give him a shave and he told me I was being to gentle and he showed me the proper way to shave. As I talked to him throughout my 6 hour clinical day I learned a lot about the man. He had just found out that he had brain cancer and they told him that he had about 6 months to live. I believe that he had two children and that he had not spoken to his children in years because that had some kind of falling out and that they had not made amends. He sat and told me with a very sad face that he wished now that he could have the opportunity to speak with them. Then he told me that he was married and that his wife was overweight and that he did not want to leave her and he told me that he kept thinking that she would have no one to help her when he died that made him cry he made me cry.
He told me he was the one who helped her with her ADL’s because she was too big to do it herself. He told me he found out he had cancer on the day before and that he was very upset and angry and had been mean to a few people but it was because he did not know what to do. He was thinking about the fact that he was not talking to his kids and that they had no idea what was happening. I believe that this man had been healthy most of his life. At the end of my day I did not want to leave my patient he made me cry so many times on that day. I told him before I left that I would never forget him and that I felt so lucky to have met him. I thanked him for the experience and he told me good luck and he thought that I would make a good nurse. As I reflect upon my story as a nurse I believe it is very important for us to try not setting that negative vibe in our coworkers whenever we give report because we may never know what kind of relationship that nurse and patient could have had if we would not have planted that negative seed. I feel as a nurse we are here to provide a service for the patient that they are unable to get from home. Sometimes that patient just needs for someone to sit and listen just like I did for my first patient. Our patients’ have things going on at home that we sometimes have no clue about. They walk into that hospital with all kinds of baggage. Sometimes in this practice we are a social worker, a clergy person, a friend, and at times we are that person that they need to yell at and vent. Nursing is a hard job that requires many hats you may walk in a give a simple bath and then walk out trying to find the person somewhere to stay and someone to help them take care of their family member. I believe that part of my job is to take care of the patient make sure that they are living in a safe environment within my scope of practice. Educate the patient about their health and to provide them with safe nursing care. I think it is important for me to walk into work with a positive attitude and leave my baggage at the door and get my mind ready to provide good care to my patient’s.
My philosophy of nursing is to educate the patient and the family about their health. I believe it is our moral duty to try and educate the patient because the more you are informed the better you feel about being in control of your health. We are with the patient when they are going through a rough spot in their life once they are over that rough spot we need to concentrate on how we can prevent this same thing from happening especially when we know the patient is being hospitalized for the same reasons. It is our job to listen and then when that person is not able to make their needs known be the advocate. Try to do good for the patient. As a nurse I feel honored that I can take care of people when they are not able to do for themselves and I enjoy making my patient’s feel better by simply giving them a bath or giving a patient something to eat and drink when they have not eaten for days. Being a nurse makes me humble. I am constantly reflecting upon my beliefs and feelings each day I interact with patients’. They teach me something new each day.