DEAR YOUNG NURSES FROM ALL US BOOMERS

     You don’t know us yet, but someday I’m sure you will. We all end up in a hospital at some point in our lives. Now that I’m an aging nurse, I’m beginning to worry about how I’ll be taken care of when my turn comes. You see, things have changed a lot since I entered nurse’s training 47 years ago. Standards are way different. The focus now is on care planning and outcomes. Things have to look good on paper and in the statistical data. My observation when I’ve gone to visit loved ones in hospitals recently is that for the most part, the nurses aren’t very involved in actual hands on patient care. Sure, you push oral and IV medications, do treatments, but I haven’t seen a lot of one on one patient interaction.

     I’d like to share a personal experience. When I was 48 years old I had major surgery to remove my entire colon and rectum. The surgery took 8 hours. When I woke up the next day I was in a hospital bed with IV’s running into my arms, a needle was in my spine to administer morphine, I had a temporary colostomy bag, two drains coming out of my abdomen, and a catheter draining my bladder. My surgeon had spared me a nasal-gastric tube, but that was about it. I could barely move, with all the pain and tubes running into and out of my body. I’d been perspiring and my skin itched. The sheets were bunched up under me. I was miserable. Then my nurse arrived! Yay!

     The nurse asked if I was ready for my bath and I told her yes. She filled a basin up with warm water and put it on my bedside table along with soap, a wash cloth, and a couple of towels. Then she said, “I’ll help you sit up then you can wash yourself. I’ll come back later and make your bed.”

     What? I couldn’t believe it. Wash myself? It was all I could do to breathe. I didn’t have anyone give me any help until the day the doctor removed the drainage tubes in my abdomen because they hadn’t been draining much. Later, I felt like water was pouring all over my stomach and soaking the bed. It was. Apparently the tubes had been plugged but there was still fluid there that drained out the hole left when the tubes came out. I put my call light on and an older nurse, about my age, answered. She came in and gave me the only good bath I’d had while there. She changed the sheets, rubbed my back, and made me feel like I mattered. We commiserated about the state of nursing today and how much things have changed. I was so grateful to her. I’ll never forget her.

     So, to all you young nurses out there: when the day comes and I’m your patient, please remember these few things that will make me feel so much better.

1.Keep me clean and dry all the time.

2.Please clean my mouth and moisten my lips.

3.Answer the call light when I put it on.

4.Don’t get annoyed because I need to use the restroom. Or worse yet, if I haven’t made it in time and I’ve made a mess.

5.Check the sheets on my bed to make sure they are free from wrinkles and lumps.

6.Help me with my meal tray and don’t just put it on my table out of reach.

7.Treat me like the human being I am, not just a number.

8.Look me in the eye when you talk to me.

9.Ask me about myself, get to know me a little while you work.

10.And most important of all remember, “Someday you’ll be me.”