Empathy or Sympathy for an old woman

[maelstrom143]

It was morning of Saturday when we have our duty at Surgical Ward. Fresh new day for a 3rd year nursing student and it's our first exposure in Surgical Ward. There are two groups assigned in Surgical Ward, my group and the other group. My group were assigned in the SICU or Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

As our Clinical Instructor endorsed to us the new orders of our patient. I was nervous for the reason that my patient needs a hourly monitoring regarding her vital signs and of course I need to render a bed bath and a morning care to her. I feel disgusting at first imaging of how I will render a bed bath to her, just imaging the dirty feet she has and the smell of her body thats really bad and she also has a colostomy at her left side without a colostomy bag and there are some waste going out from it.

I really feel disgusting at that time, just imagining it. I go to my patient and I can't really talk to her in straight because of the smell. It has really bad and I go out immediately. I talked to the nurse on duty on some information about her and I found out that her watcher always left her and nobody is there to help her to care for her and support her. I was really sad and I said to myself "What if someday I will be like her, be a patient and no relatives, no family, no friends who will there to take care of me".

It's kind a sad actually so I go back to her I performed bed bath and morning care even if the smell is really bad i just go on with my care for I know that what she needs is a person who will be there for her and who will take good care of her. It was my first time to render a bed bath to a patient and I took good care of her as if she was my grandmother. I can't believe that I performed those things because in my previous duty I never performed a care to my patient like I performed to her.

Even if it was tiring just a smile of the patient will relieve it. I know that the greatest achievement of a nurse is not about how he/she knows about the disease of the patient but how he/she renders care to them for what the patient needs is a tender loving care of a nurse.

[mayoo]

Congratulations for the good job Mael..

Reading your thread actually catapulted me back to my student days.. You are absolutely right! Each patient needs our tender loving care and we should not forget that each patient is unique. Our care should vary with each patient we take care of.

The things you mentioned about the bad smell, the unpleasant site and all, are really disgusting at first, but it becomes as normal as breathing as we stay on the job.. Have you ever thought that these unpleasant things are actually the reasons that make each one of us human? Youth fades. Our health is endangered. We are not invincible. We have limits. This fact should keep us grounded.

Its nice to know that a nurse's empathy makes her go beyond her limits to render an extraordinary job. Keep it up. I know you will be one of the best nurses someday...