Evening Shift, Christmas Eve: A Nursing Memory

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

One of my fondest memories of working Christmas Eve was after an evening shift at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. This was at the “old Bellevue Hospital,” when it still occupied a series of red brick buildings along the East River.

I had finished my evening shift in the ER, which was one of the busiest in the nation. It had been a crazy–busy night and I was too wired to just go home and sleep, so I decided to stop in the chapel for midnight mass. I was surprised to see my friend Helen there, since she was Jewish. I knew Helen always volunteered to work over the Christmas holiday so those who celebrated could be with their families, but I didn’t know that after work she’d go to the chapel to listen to the Christmas music, which apparently she loved.

We sat together, enjoying the quiet, calm pace of the service and the music. Helen knew all the words and sang along; she had a beautiful voice. Staff, visitors, and some patients (wearing the classic blue-and-white-striped Bellevue bathrobes—like draw sheets, these were hard to come by) shuffled in and out during the hour, clinicians sometimes leaving hurriedly after being summoned by a beeper.

Illustration for "A Change of Heart," AJN, December, 2014, by Lisa Dietrich for AJN. Illustration for “A Change of Heart,” AJN, December, 2014, by Lisa Dietrich

On the way out […]

2016-11-21T13:01:39-05:00December 23rd, 2015|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective|7 Comments
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Inside an Ebola Treatment Unit: A Nurse Shares Her Experiences in Liberia

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

“It is extraordinarily difficult to establish an IV line in a dehydrated patient by generator-powered light while double gloved, with one’s goggles fogging.”—Deborah Wilson

Author Deborah Wilson at the Foya ETU cemetery. Photograph by Marcos Leitão.In one of this month’s CE features, “Inside an Ebola Treatment Unit: A Nurse’s Report,” author Deborah Wilson offers readers a rare look from the frontlines of the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Her stories about her patients and colleagues are as compelling as they are informative. Here’s a short overview of the article:

In December 2013, the first cases of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD; formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever) emerged in the West African nation of Guinea. Within months the disease had spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. The international humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; known in English as Doctors Without Borders) soon responded by sending staff to set up treatment centers and outreach triage teams in all three countries. In August 2014, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.

In September 2014, the author was sent by MSF to work as a nurse in an Ebola treatment unit in Foya, Liberia for five weeks. This article describes her […]

2017-07-27T14:39:21-04:00December 11th, 2015|infectious diseases, narratives, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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How a Nurse Quietly Helped One Intern Out of a Tricky Situation

Illustration by Annelisa Ochoa. All rights reserved Illustration by Annelisa Ochoa. All rights reserved

In this month’s Reflections essay, “My Turn,” a recently retired physician tells a story of how a nurse adroitly helped him through a very disorienting moment when he was still an intern. Here’s a bit of the setup:

Medicine was my first rotation as an intern. . . . [T]he medicine rotation had a particularly intimidating reputation and a red-hot I was not. I was terrified.

On morning rounds every day our entourage of physicians, nurses, and students would go room to room discussing each patient. I can still see the open door to Mrs. Finkelstein’s room near the morning sunlight at the end of the hallway. Mrs. Finkelstein was old and was dying. And every morning when we walked in, her husband was sitting there next to the bed, holding her hand. He told us regularly how many years they had been together. We each dreaded being the one on call when she died.

There are many situations in medicine and nursing that require a certain amount of experience—most readers will agree that this is definitely one of them. At a certain point in the story, the author finds himself being asked a question that absolutely needs to be answered, and answered immediately. It’s not […]

2016-11-21T13:01:41-05:00December 9th, 2015|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|0 Comments
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The Stay-at-Home Nurse

“You may not always take your work home with you, but you take your nurse self everywhere.”

Diane Stonecipher, BSN, RN, lives in Austin, Texas.

by rosmary/via Flickr by rosmary/via Flickr

The proverbial “what do you do?” always flummoxed me. My answer was usually some variation on this: “I used to be a nurse, but I have not worked outside the home while I’ve been raising my sons.”

But most people stopped listening after the “I used to be.” Sure, I could recite some things that I had done during the intervening years, but they were not really vocations I could make a claim to.

Even my children, who I had after first being a nurse for 15 years, never thought of me as a nurse. I did not leave the house for work, I did not get paid, I did not gripe about my job (in front of them), and I was available to them 24/7.

There are many professions that lend themselves to being a good mother. There are many interests, talents, and personalities that contribute to good mothering skills. Look at nature and you will see incredible maternal gifts in every species.

Still, I can’t help but think that I have been a better mother because I am a nurse and that my children have benefited […]

2016-11-21T13:01:41-05:00December 4th, 2015|career, narratives, Nursing, nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Thanksgiving in the ICU: Woven into the Tapestry of Traditions

By Marcy Phipps, BSN, RN, CCRN. Editor’s note: This post, originally published in 2011, remains as timely as ever. The author is now chief flight nurse at Global Jetcare.) 

cranberries

I’ll be working this Thanksgiving. I’ve worked so many Thanksgivings that the ICU feels woven into the tapestry of my own traditions. I don’t really mind; the cafeteria serves a fitting feast that’s embellished by the homemade treats we bring in, and although we won’t actually be watching it, the Macy’s parade will be on. Somehow, the smells and sounds I associate with the holiday will mix and mingle with the usual bustle of critical care, and it’ll feel like Thanksgiving. It’s actually a nice day to be at the hospital—for the nurses, that is.

For our patients and their families, I know hospital holidays fall far short. We have one patient, in particular, who’s been with us for a while. Her husband’s been a fixture at her side throughout her stay, and I expect to find him stationed there this Thanksgiving. Hospital turkey and television won’t give him the comfort or peace that he seeks, and I don’t know that he’ll be giving thanks. For many weeks I’ve watched him skirt a fine line between gratitude and despair; things could always be worse, but they could certainly be better.

When I stop to count my blessings, I’m overwhelmed. I belong to a profession that I’m passionate about—one that brings me great […]

2016-11-21T13:01:43-05:00November 25th, 2015|career, narratives, nursing perspective, patient engagement|2 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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