[NPInfo] RE: My Reply...Back to Sue & Dena

Sat Sep 8 06:57:25 PDT 2007

One of my most memorable talks with a patient at the bedside had to do with
his diagnosis. He had cancer of something-or-other but was shocked when I
mentioned the word "cancer". He insisted he didn’t have cancer... he just
had a malignancy. The doctors had never sat down and taken the time to
define that term in words he could understand. In all the months since his
diagnosis, no one had ever used the "C" word before. It was me bumbling in
that broke the news to him accidentally. Then I gave him a back rub, fluffed
his pillow, and held his hand and everything was all better (NOT!!) <G>.
Dena Galler

-----Original Message-----
From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On Behalf
Of Shelby Havens
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 6:38 AM
To: npinfo at nurse.net
Subject: RE: [NPInfo] RE: My Reply...Back to Sue & Dena

Laura:

I agree. What you described is my idea of nursing hell. When I was a primary

care provider at the VA, it was all about the technology. Everybody got 
endless blood tests, an MRI, a nerve conduction study, a treadmill test, a 
colonoscopy, a pulmonary function test, an EEG, an echocardiogram,  and 
neuropsych testing. Everybody look at the reports, and not the patient. It 
seemed very disconnected and impersonal.

There was very little time to just sit down with a bewildered patient and 
their family members to discuss different ways to handle their symptoms. 
Some patients were alarmed to find out that they had a certain condition and

that the specialist to whom they had been quickly punted was recommending a 
serious surgial procedure after only a five-minute consultation visit. The 
patients heads were spinning. Maybe they really didn't need that lumbar 
laminectomy - but nobody had taken the time to explain to the patient what 
conservative therapies could do for their back pain. It might be that a few 
weeks of physical therapy might do them so good and allow them to avoid that

big operation that would keep the family breadwinner out of work for six 
weeks.

It all seemed like a big waste of resources to me. Very little job 
satisfaction also.

Best Regards,

Shelby Havens, ARNP

>From: Thiem <ljthiem at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: NP Info <npinfo at nurse.net>
>To: NP Info <npinfo at nurse.net>
>Subject: [NPInfo] RE: My Reply...Back to Sue & Dena
>Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2007 05:05:21 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I'm with you Dena.  So much of the nurturing/hands on skill has been lost 
>to technology.  How often have I observed an alarming machine summoning 
>someone to bedside, while the call light goes unanswered.  And once someone

>arrives the focus is on the alarming machine rather than the patient.
>
>While I believe the intent of the developing technology was to free up 
>nurses to do more hands on care (does anyone else remember the sales 
>pitches for the BP and IV machines?), the result has been that hospitals 
>have increased the nurses' workload citing technological advances giving 
>them "more time".
>
>We recognize that there is no substitute for human touch and compassion.  
>I'm not sure that hospital administration has learned that.
>
>Laura, NP, Missouri
>
>Dena <galdena at sbcglobal.net> wrote: I remember back in the '80s working 
>3-11, pushing a cart from patient to
>patient starting at 9:00p.m., handing out a hot wet washcloth, a towel,
>changing the drawsheet, putting a new pillow case on the pillow before
>fluffing it, and offering a back rub to everyone. It was my favorite part 
>of
>the shift. Did I ever think I was playing the stereotypical handmaiden role
>while I was doing it? No-- I only knew I was helping my patients relax and
>feel better. Several years ago while working agency on the floor for extra
>money, I fell back into the same pattern and the nurses were astonished.
>None of them had ever heard of p.m. care before. When working the day 
>shift,
>I was shocked to find out that none of the nurses apparently had ever heard
>of a.m. care or baths before either.
>
>My girlfriend's 20 yr old son was in the ICU a couple of years ago with
>bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax and was, appropriately, scared to death.
>He later told his mom (a NP herself) that the best nurse he had was one who
>gave him a back rub one night and then pulled up a chair and spent 20
>minutes just talking to him. That was what he needed more than anything 
>else
>at the time.
>
>I have often said that people go into nursing for one of two reasons-- the
>art of nursing (the nurturing, hand holding, talking) or the science of
>nursing (the machines, the numbers, the technical aspects). I'm definitely
>the hand-holding nurturer type, always have been and always will be-- and I
>will never apologize for it.
>Dena Galler
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On Behalf
>Of SusanAPR at aol.com
>Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 9:40 PM
>To: npinfo at nurse.net
>Subject: Re: [NPInfo] My Reply...Back to Sue
>
>
>
>In a message dated 9/7/2007 6:57:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>shelbyhavens at hotmail.com writes:
>
><<
>be a nurse who brings me ice chips and fluffs my pillow. I like that stuff,
>the intangible parts of nursing that make us uniquely who we are. I don't
>see it as bothersome at all.>>>
>
>
>
>Ditto that.
>I spent a week in a hospital not too long ago.  Maybe one nurse had the 
>time
>
>and inclination for "extras."  He was male, and without a doubt had a great
>handle on hte patient side of the equation.   I hated the other routines,
>like
>being woken for vitals during the night, IV pumps that bleep endlessly, and
>those damn heparin shots, and nurses who let IV tubing dangle to the floor
>assuming the three second rule was okay not just at home, but in a hospital
>as
>well....(not)..scary stuff.
>But I liked the human contact.  The humanity was far from bothersome.
>Susan
>
>
>
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