This past weekend was very difficult at work, but it had some of the most wonderful moments as well. One of my patients was discharged from the hospital and transported to a nursing home in Pennsylvania where his family lives. He and his wife lost their home during Hurricane Ian. We all thought he was not going to make it, but he pulled through and got better. I had taken care of him for the past 3 weeks and seeing his improvement is the very best part of nursing.
Another one of my patients who was previously not participatory in his care had a great day on Friday. He said he felt hope for the first time and wanted to get better. The next two days were not good for him, but I shared with him that I have bad days as well and encouraged him to move on the next day. We have bonded over our love of cats and I have listened to him talk about his family’s problems. I wore my cat ears for him one day and that cheered him up. Last week, he asked me why I was being so nice to him. It broke my heart! For us to be surprised by kindness is heartbreaking and should not be the norm for us.
I have been working with the same FEMA nurse for 3 weeks. We have gotten into a flow of helping each other as we know most of the patients in our hallway as they tend to stay for weeks. After working for 3 weeks straight, he finally got sick and called out Sunday. It was a difficult decision as he will miss out on a lot of pay, but I encouraged him it was the right decision as he still had a week left.
I missed him so much! Work was a bit more difficult without him, but I will just have to save my crazy, funny stories for next week when I see him. It will be his final week. I will miss him so much, but the honor has been mine to work with him.
There will be some nights when it feels like everything is going wrong but you just have to do the best you can. You take it moment by moment. Sometimes, you don’t have enough time to give your patients exactly what they need, but you try to fulfill the needs you can.
Some patients want someone to talk to for a while, some don’t want to be alone when they wake up. Some need help eating a bedtime snack, and some need extra attention because they are at risk for harming themselves.
With the nursing and physician shortage, caring for my patients the best that I can is difficult. You have to lean on your coworkers when you can. You have to communicate and delegate and prioritize the most important patients first. We usually have transporters, but I had to wheel my patient down to emergency surgery myself, leaving my coworker to look after the whole hallway of patients.
I wish healthcare was better. When we are overworked, giving the best care is difficult. There are ways to practice self care at work, but a moment’s mediation is not enough at times. Management is not doing enough to retain nurses and fix the nursing shortage. I am just one nurse, but I know all of us in healthcare feel this way. What a shame.