I was a newly divorced mother of three young children when I returned to nursing to support our little family.
I had been a happily stay-at-home mom for years until my husband had a mental breakdown, took all our money, and fled the state after one of our children died, but I was grateful to find a job on an oncology unit and some childcare.
I was a little nervous about being a working nurse again, but when I started my first day back, I was startled by loud shouting from a patient’s room, even through the door was closed.
I asked what was going on and the other nurses told me that the patient was abusive and shouting all the time, even though he didn’t seem in pain.
The other nurses said they had all agreed to change nurses every day because he was so nasty and they told me I was going to be assigned to him later.
I read the man’s chart and talked to the man’s doctor to ask him what was going on. I was shocked when the doctor said he thought the man was “evil”! I asked the doctor “Like Hannibal Lecter in the movie Silence of the Lambs?” He said yes and I felt a cold chill.
So I made a plan.
When my turn came up to care for the man, I asked to have him all week on the night shift. “No problem!”, the other nurses said.
The first night, the man didn’t sleep and kept shouting loudly. He ignored my questioning so I sat next to his bed and tried to understand what he was shouting.
I discovered that he was enraged and cursing God Himself. I listened quietly until he stopped.
After a while, I held his hand and every time he started to yell again, I replied “God still loves you” over and over until he eventually he fell asleep,
This went on night after night until one night he stopped and slept through the night.
The next day, he woke up and said he wanted to take a walk so I took him to the hallway just as the day shift came in.
The man smiled at them and said “Good morning, ladies!” Everyone was stunned but his whole attitude changed from then on.
Weeks later, I met a student nurse who asked how he was doing. She said she had made a big mistake with his portacath IV access and had to have it replaced surgically. She was devastated but when she apologized, he told her not to worry and that he was fine.
The student told me that she was the nicest patient she ever had!
I told her my story and said that sensitively caring for the most difficult patients can be the greatest reward of all!
nancyvalko 