I was eight years old when I was diagnosed with a pineal brain tumor. On February 13, 2012, I was sent to the hospital to have surgery. My mom, dad, doctors, and surgeons all supported me throughout the whole thing. As I got into the car to drive to the hospital at about five-thirty in the morning, that’s when I first started feeling nervous, scared, and worried. When we got into the hospital, a giant wave of scents hit me. I smelled fresh paint, antiseptic, and even the food in the cafeteria. Everything in the hospital was white and extremely sterile. As my mom and I walked into the MRI machine room for one last MRI before the surgery, I had to put on a minty blueish hospital gown. I was getting really scared! The nurse led me to a room …show more content…
where she gave me an IV tube, which is a metal tube the nurse puts into your hand and then takes out to reveal a small, plastic tube that, when injected into the nozzle at the bottom, inserted the medicine into your bloodstream. This method is much faster-acting than a pill or liquid medicine. After I had the IV put in, we were led to the giant, donut-like MRI machine. I laid in the tube for about an hour while technicians took pictures of the inside of my head. Then, I had to go to the room where we stayed until it was time for me to have my surgery. The room was a pale yellow, with white chairs and a white couch in the corner. Finally, the nurse who would take me to the operating room came in.
She smiled at me and told me that everything was going to be fine. She got me settled into a bed and she handed me a doll wearing a hospital gown. I was still very skeptical, and I felt like getting up from the bed and running away. She and another nurse wheeled the bed into a bright white room that smelled like anesthetic gas and sterile wipes. A nice nurse came in with a syringe of my anesthetic. She injected some into my IV, I was getting sleepy. The surgeon commented on how I was a “fighter” because I didn’t want to go to sleep. The nurse injected another dose of anesthesia, and I was out cold. It felt like only a second, and I was awake again. I woke up while I was being wheeled into a white, sunny ICU (Intensive Care Unit) room. The nurse noticed me open my eyes, and she asked me if I was okay. I was still affected by the medicine, and I hurt everywhere from the position the surgeons put me in to get to the spot they needed to make the incision, so I could only manage a slight nod. I was in the hospital for many weeks, and most of those weeks were spent laying in bed and sleeping. It was one of the most boring times of my life. I was in constant pain, I had nothing to do, and I couldn’t even watch television in fear that I would get a
headache. Then, the day finally came. I was disconnected from my IV, and I was free. The doctor said that I still had to rest, and that I couldn’t go to school, but I was relieved that I could go home and see my dad, dogs, brother, and aunt, who came to visit from Georgia. A few weeks later, I was ready to get back to school. I was really excited, I hadn’t been at school for almost three months! At school, everyone welcomed me back, and I got lots of questions, like, “Did it hurt?” or “Are you okay now?” All in all, this experience was one that changed my life forever.
Anesthesia, “We take it for granted that we can sleep through operations without feeling any pain. But until about 150 years ago, the operating room was a virtual torture chamber because surgeons had no way to prevent the pain caused by their healing knives.”
Pre-operatively patients were brought into the only pre-op room where forms and consent were looked over, allergies verified, proper surgical site confirmed by staff and patient, last minute medication given (antibiotic) and last minute concerns answered.
I was shaking when we went inside--- I absolutely hate the doctors office! There was only one people waiting to be seen; with a face mask on hoping not to spread the possible air borne disease, and the others who were just sitting there waiting for perhaps friends or family members to come out. They checked me in and gave me a madatory blue bracelet to wear. In no time I was rushed in a wheel chair to the CAT scan machine. I was alone in the room which was over fifteen minutes sitting inside a large machine with flourescent lights and heat directly over my head. Slowly the lady wheeled me back to my checked in room. The doctor waiting with instant news, he announced I had no internal bleeding in my head which was the only good news I would be getting that day. The nurses and doctors came to the conclusion that I had a concussion. It sure felt like
As a nurse, I feel that at many times I am placed in a situation, where I need to use my leadership skills in order to provide efficient care by managing the limited time. According to CNO guideline, leadership is a process of influencing people to achieve common goals. It requires self-awareness and commitment towards profession, ability to delegate, manage time and to communicate effectively within the health care professionals.
Fiction and story telling is an integral part of life. It is all around us and we cannot escape it. Storytelling is such a powerful tool in a person’s life and nurses must be able to not only tell stories but also learn how to listen to a patient’s story, interpret the stories, and empathize with the patient. Narrative competence is a valuable skill to have as a nurse. Narrative competence is the “ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others” (Charon, 2001). This is why having narratives from a patient’s perspective that a nurse can reference to is vital. By reading narrative nurses then have a background or an idea of what a patient may be going through and why he or she is acting in a certain way.
“As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person.” I relate to this quote by Paul Shane Spear because it mirrors how I feel about pursuing a career in nursing. I want to be able to help others as much as I can. Arriving to this career choice was not a simple decision for me. What influenced me most in wanting to be a nurse was helping my grandfather during the past several years, and helping him through different illnesses and surgeries. My grandfather, who I call Papa, lives with me and my immediate family. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to help him because he and I are very close and he is my best friend. Through my involvement in helping him heal from his medical challenges, I was able to come
I started my Nursing career in India and then I came to the United States and became an RN. I entered Nursing with the thinking that Nursing is a profession that will always allow me to have a job and all my patients will get better. However, from my experiences I understood that Nursing is more than just giving medications, and it requires clinical competence, cultural sensitivity, ethics, caring for others, and life-long learning about others and the evolving field of medicine. Florence Nightingale once said:
As I sat there in the emergency room, my head numb, my hair red, and sweat covering my forehead, not really knowing what was going to happen. That’s probably not what you would have wanted to be feeling on a Friday night in second grade. But, that’s what I was feeling.
They then put pain medication through and in about five minutes my entire body had gone numb and my head was no longer in the right place. We then approached the hospital when they rolled me into the operating room. The doctor then came in with the anesthesiologist where she had given me something that put me under. I don't remember a single thing I just remember waking up and the nurse was wrapping my arm up and putting a sling on me. Eventually after what seemed like forever the doctor finally arrived back to my room to ask if we had any questions to which after that he had released me with a prescription for pain meds that we had later gotten from the medecine machine that was basically was just a vending machine for meds. My dad had left to go home and I then went with my mom to her house and on the drive she said that she had stayed to watch the operation because she sees operations taking place everyday so it wasn’t as gruesome as some of the things that she witnesses daily. I then asked how it went from her standpoint because I had no recollection of the events that had just taken place. She said that after I went under the doctor tried to place my elbow back into the joint but it had been so hard that with his strength he had been unable to do it alone so they had
The ambulance people leave after they get me out of the stretcher and into a bed but are quickly replaced by ER nurses. One of them takes my neck brace off because I don’t need it. The she asks me to look at the chart on the wall and rate my pain. I say two because it looked like a step up from normal, but not too far away for anyone to worry. Soon they leave and another nurse comes in and asks my name, age, and date of birth, then tells me to press a button if I need anything then she waltzes out in a blur.
Have you ever had surgery? If you have then what would it be, and did it hurt as bad as you thought it would? We had to leave early in the morning to go to Gasden, we had to check in and file paperwork. All that stuff took about an hour or two, also because we had to patiently wait in the waiting room. But when it came time for me to go in I started feeling nervous, and kinda scared because I didn't know what the results after the surgery would turn out to be. A nurse and a doctor came in and back out of the room, checking on the anaesthesia they had gave me. As the doctor checked on another person, the nurses added two I.V. needles in my arms, and a laughing gas mask.
(talk about specific patient story here) -One of my most memorable experiences was
The severe exhaustion I lived with was gone but initially I tired easily. I continued with my therapeutic regimen to assist my body in its healing process. I stayed in bed for the next three days and took care of myself. For the first time in my life I began to make myself a priority and put me first. I listened carefully to what my body told me, I continued to follow my intuition and instincts as best I could. I was now able to identify my needs and communicate them to others in more authentic ways that felt satisfying. It was easier to set boundaries with people and say no. I felt in charge of my life and it was really fun. My first surgery left me empowered.
I was quivering as I sat on the pristinely white sheeted gurney. I had no idea what to expect. Ami sat in a plastic, maroon chair over in the corner and looked at the cold, disinfected, tile floor. The sounds of beeping machines and ticking clock flooded my ears. The nurse knocked on the door and both Ami and I jumped. She handed me a clipboard with some paperwork on it that asked for the basics: name, date of birth, reason for being here, consent to treat, and so on and so forth. I filled it all out the best I could, my mind was lost in another galaxy. Besides, how was I supposed to know what year my father was born in and the phone number to my mother’s work? Once I finished, the nurse took the clipboard and exited the room once again.
I was visiting my brother in Massachusetts when I got sick on the airplane. I went to the emergency room and I was immediately admitted into the hospital. The doctor recognized my symptoms and immediately took action to medically treat my condition. I enjoyed my week stay in the hospital because the nurses and I became so close and the nurses were there for me when I needed them. The nurses kept me inform, comfort me by making me feel everything was going to be alright. The nurses that took care of me genuinely cared and guided me each step to recovery. This life changing experience gave me inspiration to continue my dream of becoming a