The Magic of Nursing

Read about the magic, inherent qualities of nurses.

The Magic of Nursing

Karen Kelly

When I go to the hospitals with my students its always interesting.  I get to see everything for the first time again – and from the perspective of someone “kind of” in healthcare, or new to healthcare. The have these amazing insights that totally blow me away sometimes.  

Recently, I was there with some level 2 (second semester) nursing students. Last semester they were in a long term care facility, so this was their very first experience in the hospital.  Everything was new and terrifying for them. So when we walked around the first day they huddled around me and we walk like a group of ducks.

Eventually I was able to get them to go into patient rooms and start to do some very basic care.  One of my students was caring for a young man who had surgery the night before. His fiancée and parents were in the room with him.  He was in pain and continuously wanted pain meds. My student came to me in a panic unsure what to do because he wasn’t due for meds for another hour. The patient was upset and the family was upset.

When I walked into the dark, crowded room I could feel the tension – everyone wanted pain meds!  Luckily, I was a fresh face and a fresh set of eyes. I calmly opened the blinds a bit and turned on the lights. I looked at the wound and talked about how nice it looked.  I had the fiancée and family look at it and we talked about what it would look like if it were infected. I talked about how he just has surgery and how it was expected that he have some pain.  

As I talked I cleaned up some of the coffee cups and straightened his bed.  My student and I taught him how to position himself to relieve some pain. And as we moved him and taught the family how to move him, the tension eased in the room.  The family realized that they too could help him and saw that he was ok. And, as the families’ tension eased, his tension eased.
We eventually found a recliner for the fiancée and showed the parents where they could get coffee and the cafeteria. And just like that, their world was good again.

             My student thought that I was a magician! No pain meds given and a bit of pain relief was achieved. In that moment they learned the magic of changing the energy in a room by de-cluttering and bringing in some natural light. They learned the magic of involving the patient in his care. They learned the value of engaging the family in the patients care.