[nursinghumor]

http://www.inspirationalnursing.com

As the alarm goes off on the switchboard for room 213 The only nurse on the floor is helping Mr. Harris to his room, He is an Alzheimer’s patient who has a tendency to wander and who inevitably finds his way into some poor old ladies room calling “Anne, Anne, The toilets backed up again!"

This always scared the ****ens out of these old girls and as a result the nursing staff, (what little there is) were kept busy sometimes just trying to keep up to these elderly travelers.

The nurse hears the alarm gently beeping and sits the old man down softly in a nearby wheel chair with instructions not to move. She then moves off down the darkened hall, crepe shoes squeaking on the floor in that soft squishing noise that is the sound of an angel at night for so many people.

The frazzled nurse thinks that there’s only six hours left till the end of her twelve hour shift. She thinks also how being so short handed due to hospital cutbacks was really getting to employee morale.

Tonight for example the other nurse slated for work on her shift was out on stress leave and the girl who was to relieve her had been called away to the emergency department leaving her all alone to manage the floor.

She enters the darkened room to find Mrs. Hamilton in a panicked state. She is having trouble breathing and her apparatus has fallen to the floor and she can’t reach it.

As the nurse gently places the mouthpiece on the struggling old lady’s face she rubs her back and whispers softly in her ear.

The night is always the worst time for these old people, the blanket of darkness seems to advance their woes and fears. Sometimes they just want to talk, just to hear another voice confirming their ties to humanity.

The endless drone of machines with its own twisted theme music can be overwhelming for the infirmed. And knowing this, the nurse tries to help and sooth these fragile souls. This is the silent dignity nurses give, that people rarely see. The midnight visits to calm frightened old men and women.

The encouraging words and soothing touch given freely in the night that go largely unnoticed. They have the ability to listen with interest while stifling the need to add stories of there own or giving postdated advice.

These things make up the human side of the nurse. They are the bricks in the facade of her professionalism. However there is an exhausted mother of three underneath and she is desperately tired tonight and seriously overworked.

She leaves the room and returns to Mr. Harris. He has already walked down the corridor and is about to get in the elevator when she catches up to him. “where’s Anne?” he demands “the toilet is plugged again!”

She smiles and says “I know Mr. Harris, She’s fine! And the plumber is coming, now let’s get you back in your room to sleep ok?”

They walk softly down the hall the tired nurse helping the old man as the alarm on her consol starts to beep again. Six hours she thinks, Six hours.

************************************************** ****
Nursing Stories, Nurse Tales, Poems
http://www.inspirationalnursing.com/nursing


Sincerely,

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137, AOL “nursefriendly”
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618