“One Nurse, One Patient”

“One Nurse, One Patient” by Theresa Brown found on NY Times, May 4, 2011. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/one-nurse-one-patient/

“As a nurse on the oncology floor, I’m usually responsible for at least four patients each shift.” Theresa says starting off the article. I was thinking that, now that she has only one patient then her day would be a lot easier. As she talked about her patient and how his cancer could be completely wiped clean from his slate after this Four-hour vigil. I was thinking to myself that; its life, you’re going to have to bet big to win big and that being cancer free is a very big win.

 When she administered the drug to him he told her that he “Felt weird”.  “No shit dumb ass! Of course you do it’s not normal to have a drug this strong pumped into your body.”I said profusely at the computer screen. But you’re at a hospital where the only reason why you’re there is because you don’t feel good. So she let it go until he had a shaking attack called “Rigoring “  witch the doctor had seen coming so they were able to help stop it early. Now his vague complaint put her on alert!

“As always in these situations, I was trying to project calm, but inside I was debating my next move. “ She was trying to figure out if her patient was crashing or not. She called the doctor to come down to the room and told the Doc everything that had happened. “Suddenly I decided I couldn’t wait any longer and pulled out my phone. “I’m calling it,” I said, preparing to dial the number that would bring in a rapid-response team, My fingers were on the keypad, but then, suddenly,” Theresa’s actions in the final moments of the situation. But then like an act of god “the patient’s oxygen level started to climb.”

She told us that “We give dangerous drugs all the time, but I’d never felt so fully responsible for making a patient very sick in the course of doing my job.” “I’d also never been so close to calling a code.” There’s always time for a first but not to day for this RN.

I’ll give you a reason to trust a nurse “For four stressful hours I had delivered all the care that had been prescribed, reacted quickly to problems that developed and met all of my patient’s needs.” Honestly to have a human beings life in your hands is the most stress full thing in the world. Then on top of that you are needed to stay calm and remember how to do anything that pops up, and from what it sounds like you get a lot of curve balls.