Critical Care Essay

            The job of a nurse is not an easy one because there are many obstacles to overcome and preserve through each day. Every day on the job is a new experience that no person could have predicted even with the best research. A nurse must be prepared for anything to happen and how to respond in a timely, but effective manner. Sometimes a nurse may be looked at as a helper to a doctor, but when a patient calls the nurse is always the first to respond. A nurse can be known as an advocate, a counselor, and a teacher for a patient and their families, but most importantly a nurse is best known as a caregiver.

1) In the book, Critical Care, there are several occurrences of patients’ deaths. Choose one account and discuss your impressions of this experience. What, if anything, surprised you about the situation? What are your feelings about dealing with patient deaths?

            In the book, Critical Care, Theresa describes an experience she had with a patient who had die right in front of her. This death was Theresa’s first Condition A experience and it seemed to take her by surprise. As I read this section about the patient who was bleeding through their mouth I was in awe because I couldn’t believe I was actually reading this. This death seemed to have happened so quickly without warning and I felt panicked just reading it. I think what surprised me the most about reading this experience was how calm Theresa remained during the whole thing. Death is a hard thing to face but having to face it for the first time in a hospital setting must be so overwhelming. I think that reading this section I learned that a patient’s condition can change at any moment and a nurse must be ready to jump into action to provide care. In the book Theresa Brown says, “When actors go through these routines on TV, it seems exciting and glamorous, but in real life the experience is profoundly sad,” (pg.84). I do think that TV makes death out to be this peaceful and glamorous thing, but in reality, it can be gruesome and very sad. My feelings towards death is that I understand every person will go through this, but as a nurse you must watch someone you have been providing care for die and it can leave an effect. Personally, death has showed me how precious life is and each moment is a memory and it should never be taken for granted. As a nurse I want to be there for patients when their time comes and remind them that their life on earth will never be forgotten and that their memory will live on with their family and friends. Death is a sad thing to deal with, but as a nurse we need to provide care to patient to the very end and continue to provide care to the families after the patient has left us.

2)Theresa Brown is often critical of her own skills and actions as a novice nurse. What is an example where she was not critical of herself, but where you questioned her actions, behaviors, or words? What might you have done differently in this situation?

            Throughout the book Theresa explains situations that she faced on the floor and ways she could have done it differently. In this section Theresa wasn’t sure if she should allow a patient to take his own medication, so she asks the intern on the floor and they don’t either. Eventually the pharm D comes down and explains that patients should not take their own medication. Theresa just brushes this off, but I think that this is a learning point for her. I think she should have been more critical about how she went about this situation because I don’t think she went about it correctly. I think the fact that she went to the intern instead of the pharm D or floor nurse shows her lack of knowledge and experience. An intern isn’t going to know because they are just learning the policies and procedures of the hospital, so they aren’t the best resource. I think the fact that she still allowed the patient to take these medications shows that maybe she doesn’t know the policies and procedures very well. If I was in this situation, I would have tried to contact the pharm D and/or talked the floor nurse before allowing the patient to take these medications. It is important to know if a patient can take certain medications or not because if something were to go wrong then the nurse providing care would be responsible for it.

4) Choose one section of the book (sentence, passage, chapter) that was particular meaningful to you and why.

            The section in the book that was meaningful to me was when Theresa had just told Marianne that her husband died, and Theresa was on the phone with the daughter. In the book Theresa Brown states, “Her wailing, I realized, was the sound of raw grief, a sound so true and so painful that hearing it feels like a smack across the face,” (pg. 95). The reason that this section was so meaningful to me was it shows that a nurse is a shoulder to cry in a time of grief. While reading this section I could feel the grief that the family felt and the responsibility that Theresa had to the family. I’ve dealt with situations where I’ve lost family members and it is not the best feeling. I know that I felt hopeless and that someone had just ripped out a part of my heart. That feeling sticks around for a while and all I wanted was for people to respect what I was going through. I think that losing someone in your life teaches you to be empathetic towards others feelings and how to react in these types of situations. I think that these characteristics are important for a nurse to have to be able to talk to a patient and their family about death. For a nurse to be able to relate to death and understand the families’ struggles can guide a nurse to better care for the patient and family.

5) Theresa Brown relates the following poem by Frank Bidart to a career in nursing: I hate and love. Ignorant fish, who even wants the fly while writhing.  How do you react to the idea of loving and hating a career in nursing? What aspects of the nursing profession do you see on both sides?

            In this book Theresa gives many examples of how nursing can be a loving and hating relationship. One situation that really stood out to me was when Theresa was about to discharge one of her patients and he asked her to stay and listen to some Bruce Springsteen. Prior to this Theresa had been running around all day dealing with three other patients and didn’t have a moment for herself. Nursing consists of a lot of work and meeting the needs of all the patients on the floor at the time. However, if a nurse has a moment to stop and get to know a patient then it makes all the running around worth it. Theresa Brown states, “When the music finished, I realized Peter had given me a tremendous gift; he allowed me to be a regular human being. Not his nurse- his pill giver, paper distributor, and vitals taker- but a person…,” (pg. 79). I think that being a nurse takes strength and perseverance to get through each day without wanting scream every five minutes. A nurse must do the hardest duties, whether that’s telling family members about a death or cleaning up poop from a patient. There will come moments when a nurse is completely spent, at their lowest point, and wondering how they will continue, but then there will be that patient that brightens the day with just one small action. I think this section from the book shows that very well because Theresa was having a very hard day and just one action from her patient made the day worth it. I think that in nursing the patient and nurse relationship is one of a kind because the patient is helping the nurse get through the day by a few small actions. To be a nurse is not an easy job because a nurse has to care patients, families, and friends and all the ups and downs that come with it, but at the end of the day a nurse can leave the hospital knowing that they at least had a small impact on someone’s life today while providing care and that’s what makes it all worth it.