THAT Moment...

I agreed to let medical personnel study me and they would talk for a long time and then suddenly "snap to" and realize I was a live human being, smile awkwardly, and then go back to talking. It was funny to me, but I wasn't in pain. When I was in pain, and they were talking about their golf game, I was pretty ******. I'm sure your smile DID make a difference and you are going to be an excellent nurse.

Wow, thanks so much for the compliment. So sorry you had to go through something like that. Your comments will also help me be a better nurse! Hope you are doing well...Kim

Did anyone ever give him pain meds?

Hi, I love reading these articles. I'm preparing to enter nursing school this August. I am 55 years old. I have always wanted to be a nurse. God and time has opened this door for me and I intend to walk through it to the end. I am so excited to finally see a dream turn into reality. These articles have been so encouraging, funny, serious, and very refreshing. Looking forward to reading more.Blessings

Even after over 10 years I need to remember from time to time just why it was that I went into nursing. Very humbling; thank you for that reminder.

I thought I was older for doing nursing school. I just finished my LPN and am starting MS College in the fall to do my BSN. I am 34 and by the time I am finished I will be about 38. I am so proud of you and you are going to be a great nurse!

I am 54 and just completed my first semester of an AD-RN program. I was a Dental Hygienist and a Special Ed teacher. I still teach part time @ a local career college.Maybe we should start a thread for over 40 or second/third career changers.

I loved your post and it made me hold my head a little higher knowing that I will be a nurse soon too and that I will be a nurse that practices her art just like you. There are not many posts on here like yours and it was a light in the dark so to speak. How often on a daily basis does a nurse who is working with someone look into their eyes and really SEE that person? As a nurse you see all the work that you are checking off in your head, the paper work that needs to be done, the patient down the hall you need to see next... I know the doctors don't do it either, they see body funtion and chemistry and the process of a disease, you can practically see the wheels working behind their eyes as they consider the disease process, forms of treatment, etc, but they don't SEE the person.

I have to say I have moments like that almost every day. I work in home care and have the time to see the pt for more than a treatment, dressing change. That is why I really love my job. I had a huge ahaa moment when I followed a pt on to the bathroom one day and saw the look on his face. I apologized for my lack of consideration and got all the rest of our profession for not remembering that he is a person not just an illness. I did feel much better at the time. Kudos to you got rembering and smiling as a student. What a wonderful nurse you will be.

Oops the ahaa moment was several years on my nursing career many years ago but still just as memorable as yesterday. Home care does offer more time with each pt but does not mean less intense. Those huge wound vacs eventually come home thats when I take them. Gladly. I too love the big wounds.but understand out is usually just me and the pt. Love it.

We have to be careful when speaking about any group of people. Us vs. them. One of the sweetest moments I've witnessed, as a RN, was when I went with a doctor on his rounds. As he was talking with the patient, who was terminally ill, the doctor started crying, and sat down on the side of the patient's bed, and quietly, softly, cried with him. As with bedside manner of nurses depends on the nurse, so the doctor's bedside manner, depends on the doctor.

OMG Yes I also had a MD do that too, his compassion was so wonderful I had to leave the room I was crying so much. He then chased me down to ask what was wrong and did he say any thing wrong to the pt. He was and still is to this day my favorite. Though I have had some close... I dont get much chance to talk with the dr. directly usually on home care but when one calls me back personally multiple times he is a keeper, one dr that I to I talked to for the first time was so compassionate towards his pt that I in the coarse of the conversation called him by his first name. (I learned old school and that is very hard for me to do). LOL