Nursing outside the box

I am a changed person. I've seen the light. Call it an epiphany of sorts.

We've had a lot of lectures in health assessment about this topic and the focus this week in Medical-Surgical Care of the Adult II was OBEEEEEESITY (say that in the movie trailer guy deep slow voice), and all the resultant complications , I've pretty much lost my appetite. Trude will tell you I haven't eaten in a week. To top that off, after my theory instructor had a big story about a Pickwickian patient she had once that she found hard to forget and she shared quite a story with the class. Guess what kind of patient I had this week after my ARF patient when up to the ICU 15 minutes into shift? Yep, a very sweet P.W. patient with long lasting COPD and a health history that beats "Roots".

In any event, I had to pull a rabbit out of my hat this weekend when it came to nursing interventions for this woman. I absolutely fell in love with her. She had one of those big girl beds and I knew that for any kind of real nursing care, I was going in and under like 20,000 leagues under the sea..remember the arm story that Talitha told. We can do bowel management and that makes us good plumbers but really...the most important assessments are the spiritual and sexual assessments we do as nurses (I digress). Those of you who were present for April Fools Day lecture will understnad that line.

So, I decided to really take my time with her and just talk. She has a lot of neglect issues. I asked her the question (don't ask me why) "if she had one wish what would it be" and she said "I'd really like a hot guy with 6 pack abs and a tight ass to come in my room and talk to me"...

Missing my husband, I told her without missing a beat, that I could arrange this for her and asked DH if he would stop by Sunday night and see my patient. (not quite a 6 pack, but he is quite charming, very handsome and has his Zoolander moments.)

With flowers and a chocolate egg, he spent about 90 minutes with my patient, visiting with her, massaging her hands and talking to her about nutrition and friendship and her family.

I loaded her up all weekends with meds and assessments, but this by far was the best care I gave all semester. Trude doesn't think he's hot. But my patient fell asleep with a smile on her face.

This story is true. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my school or it's affiliates