Looking for Positive Things As We Near Thanksgiving

As we near Thanksgiving, I increasingly find myself looking for positive things—partly to help diminish my sadness about the still-mounting COVID-19 deaths and the nearly universal strain that everyone, perhaps especially those in health care, seems to be feeling.

As I wrote in last November’s editorial:

“Though I’m by no means a Pollyanna, I do believe incessant dwelling on the negatives doesn’t help any of us; we also need to examine the positives. I recall how exhausting it was to work a long, hard shift alongside someone who complained about everything. The negativity colored my own perceptions and stayed with me well after the shift ended. Conversely, working with colleagues who offered support and voiced a “we will get through this” attitude inspired confidence and optimism. My first nurse manager in the ED was superb at this, especially during some very harrowing shifts.” […]

Joy, Relief, Reverence: Positive Side Effects of a First COVID-19 Vaccination

A family’s long year, brushed by COVID-19.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

On February 23, 2020, three days before a flight to Israel to speak at a nursing conference, I received a message from the host that the ministry of health had issued a restriction to stop all conferences and meetings in the health care system because of the coronavirus. I had other business scheduled, so I boarded the flight. While in Israel, I followed the global health news, and returned home a week later fully aware that COVID-19 was an emerging pandemic. But when I landed and entered the international arrivals terminal at Newark Airport, business was as usual and only a handful of us in line wore masks going through customs.

It’s been a hard year since that time. My son, a healthy 27-year-old, had COVID in late March, during the worst surge of positive cases and deaths in New York City. Testing wasn’t available. He lived a subway ride away. For 10 days, I monitored his symptoms by texts, along with his primary care provider. He fully recovered. My 95-year-old mother died in April in a  New York State assisted living facility. We don’t believe her death was COVID related. Restrictions prevented my visiting her […]

Finding Ways to Be Thankful

As we near Thanksgiving, I increasingly find myself looking for positive things—things to help diminish the sadness over the mounting COVID-19 deaths…

So begins my editorial in the November issue of AJN.

As a former ED nurse, I recall working many Thanksgivings. Though I missed holiday dinners with my family, the stark reality of what my patients and their families were dealing with always put things into perspective.

This year, though I won’t be working, I will still be missing my family on Thanksgiving. My husband and I usually host a large dinner, which we’ve cancelled this year in following recommendations to avoid such gatherings. I know many others are doing the same. […]

Gratitude or Regrets? Contemplating Last Words

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” -Dr. Suess*

Two losses in two days.

by dave shafer/via flickr

Recently, I experienced two unexpected deaths within the span of two days. The first was the passing was of our family’s first dog, who lived with us for 15 years. She was a healthy dog, but suffered from a stroke three days before her death, which disabled her from walking or standing up on her own.

She had symptoms of a suspected brain tumor for months, but she suffered the most during the last three days. Since she was not able to stand up or eat solid food, our family made the difficult decision to relieve our girl from her pain and say goodbye to our dog.

During the same time, my 75-year-old mother, who battled lung cancer for 12 years, went to the emergency department for pain on her right side. Once arriving at the ED, she was prescribed antibiotics to manage her symptoms and then discharged from the hospital. Although she seemed better for a time after returning home, her pain suddenly became unmanageable and she returned to […]

2020-11-20T09:42:51-05:00November 20th, 2020|Nursing|1 Comment

Those Special Moments Nurses Sometimes Talk About

Before I became a nurse, I heard that nurses have special moments with their patients and families that they never forget, but I never truly understood what that meant.

My first neonatal code occurred about six months after I completed my orientation in the pediatric emergency department. I remember that shift being a particularly busy one. In the midst of the hustling and bustling of assessing and medicating patients and reevaluating and discharging them, I heard banging on the triage door and saw a mother and father wheeling in their baby carriage, frantically crying out that their baby Skye was blue in color.

By S.Hermann and F.Richter/Pixabay

I remember quickly removing her clothing and seeing how cyanotic she was, all while an electrocardiogram was being obtained and she was placed on the cardiac monitor. I recall hearing the doctors paging overhead for pediatric respiratory and anesthesiology to assist with resuscitation. Other team members included a CNA and a medical student who tried to relax the parents but were understandably not successful.

There were multiple unsuccessful attempts to obtain peripheral vascular access in Skye. I can still see the look of terror on Skye’s parents’ faces as the drill gun used to insert the intraosseous access whirled into baby Skye’s bone, then […]

2020-10-23T10:48:41-04:00October 23rd, 2020|family experience, Nursing, Patients, pediatrics|0 Comments
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