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Author Topic: Writing a book. What do you think?
andrew
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Chapter 1

A New Beginning


The first day of clinicals at the hospital, I was a little nervous. The first day wasn’t so bad, because the class only had to go to the hospital and pick a patient. As I got off the elevator on the Medical Surgical floor, I felt like a fish out of water. The clean antiseptic hospital smell made me nauseous. I walked toward the Nurses station and nervously said good morning to a nurse. We made small talk and I asked her how long she had worked at the hospital. She said she had been working there for six years. As I fumbled my way through a patient’s chart that I choose, I explained to her that this was my first day here and I was a student. She told me to relax and everything would come in time. After getting all the information that I needed about the patient out of the chart, I told her thank you for taking time to talk with me and it was nice meeting her. At that time another nurse walked up and interrupted our conversation. She said, “Dr. Ross, you’re needed in room 201”. The nurse, um Doctor smiled and told me to have a nice day. I felt an inch tall. I learned that day that not all women are nurses and, of course, all men are not Doctors.
The patient that I choose was an 80 year old male who had a hip fracture and was recovering from surgery. My job was to learn as much as I could about the man form his medical record so that I could come back the next day and provide him with the nursing care that he needed. I stayed up that night until 3am in the morning. I fell asleep while studying this mans case. I had to learn all the medications he was on, the side effects and what kind of care he would need me to provide. I woke up at 6:30am with drool all over my medical book. I looked at the clock. “6:30 am”, “6:30!” “Oh my God, I have to be at the hospital at 7:30!” I ran around the house in a panic. “Where is my uniform, where is my shoes, my keys. Ok, calm down. I can make it there on time.” I left the house at 7:00 am. Every traffic light I came to was red. “Why now! Come on light just turn green!” I was actually yelling at a traffic light. I think it heard me. I actually got to the hospital at 7:25. Five minutes to spare. I knew I would make it. Yeah, right. I ran through the parking lot and tripped over the curb. “Damn this is not my day” I said, as I caught my balance and ran toward the hospital entrance. Of course I had to wait on the elevator. “Two minutes, I might actually make it.” As I got off the elevator I could see my class in a room with glass windows a short distance from the elevator. I snuck in the room in the back of everyone undetected. Our instructor was telling us the does and don’ts of the hospital. She looked at me and smiled, as if to say, “Don’t worry everything is o.k.” Well, I thought I was undetected. She dismissed us from the room to go and take care our patient. After I settled down, I realized that I was actually going to go and take care of a man who had a fractured hip. I started sweating and got clammy. My stomach started to hurt and I had to run to the bathroom. I had not ate breakfast so where did all the stomach contents come from?
After leaving the bathroom and getting a drink of water I had to go introduce myself to my patient. As I walked down the hall slowly, I could see his room number getting closer. When I got to his door I stopped and said, “God help me get through this”. I cleared my throat, knocked on his door and entered his room. “Hello Mr. Radcliff”, I said. “Who the hell are you?” he responded. “I am your nurse for the next few hours. I am a student nurse.” “No I don’t want any stew” he said. Well, I realized then that he was very hard of hearing. So in a loud voice I said, “No sir, I said student nurse”. “What?”, he said. So, in a louder voice I said, “I AM YOUR STUDENT NURSE!” “You don’t have to yell, I heard you the first time.” He laughed, “Gotcha!” “I can hear just fine. I like to tease people. Everyone thinks all old people are hard of hearing” he said. I laughed and we made small talk for a few minutes. He asked me how old I was, was I married, did I have any children. I told him that I recently got divorced and I had no children. He said, “Son, you aren’t getting any younger. But don’t worry, you will meet the right women and when you do, she’ll knock your socks off. I’ve been married 43 years to the same women. We have six children and twelve grandchildren. She is the next thing closest to God. I love that women like you wouldn’t believe, even after 43 years. Anyway, what you going to do for me son? I broke this danged old hip walking out my front door. I lost my balance and here I am.” “Well sir”, I said “I am supposed to give you a bed bath.” “O.k., so lets get to it”, he said. As I was getting my supplies ready, to give him a bath, I thought for a second and said “Sir, I will be right back.” I walked out the room and stood right outside the door. I thought to myself, “In just a moment, I am going to give a MAN a bath. Can I do this? Will I do it right? Come on Keith, get yourself together.” I walked back into Mr. Radcliff’s room. “Is there anything wrong?” he said. “Well, Mr. Radcliff, I have never done this before and I am a little nervous”, I responded. “Son, I’ve never broke my hip before, so it’s the first time for both of us. Don’t be nervous, just do it. I’ll help you as much as I can. Are you ready?” “Sure, I guess so sir.” “ Please don’t call me sir, I feel like we have gotten to know each other pretty well. Just call me Frank,” he said. “Yes sir, I mean o.k. Frank”. I was still pretty nervous as I dipped the wash clothe into the bath basin. He said, “Hold on now! Is that water in that there basin warm? At my age everything is already shriveled up, cold water is just going to make it worse.” he said laughingly. I sort of chuckled and said, “Yes its warm water.” So I began at his feet and starting giving Frank a bed bath. While I was bathing him we continued to make small talk about sports, what he watched on television last night, the weather, whatever either one of us could think of to talk about. Within about fifteen minutes I had completed his bed bath. I said, “Well Frank, I think that about does it.” He said, “Yep! I think your right. We both got through it. You didn’t hurt my hip, I feel better and you just gave your first bed bath.” “Thank you Frank. You couldn’t be a better first patient.” “No, Thank you Keith.”
As I was gathering up all the supplies that I had used to bathe Frank, there was a knock at the door. “Come in!” I said. The door opened and it was my instructor. “Hello Mr. Radcliff, how was your student nurse?” “No! I don’t want any stew!” Frank and I both looked at each other and started laughing. My instructor looked at me and smiled. “I’m sorry it’s an inside joke between me and Frank, I mean Mr. Radcliff.” My instructor said, “So Mr. Radcliff, did you receive a good bed bath.” “Yes! Keith, I mean Mr. H****** here is a pro at it. Best care I received since I’ve been in this damned old place!” “Great! I’ll have to brag on him to the rest of the class. Have a good day Mr. Radcliff” she said as she left the room. “Thanks Frank for saying that to my instructor. I’m glad you didn’t tell her the truth.” He said, “Keith, I did tell her the truth. You did a great job! Hang in there and you can do anything that you put your mind too.” There was another knock at the door. An elderly woman came in and said, “Hello honey.” Frank said, “Hi sweet heart.” She walked over to Frank and gave him a kiss on the check. “Keith this is the wonderful love of my life that I was telling you about.” “Hello ma’am, nice to meet you.” I said. Frank introduced his wife to me and the three of us chatted briefly. There was a knock at the door and my instructor walked into the room again. “Mr. Radcliff our class is going to lunch now and Mr. H****** will be back in about forty-five minutes.” she said. Frank said, “O.k. Keith, I’ll see you when you get back.” “Nice meeting you Mrs. Radcliff. See you in a little bit Frank.” I said as I was walking out the door with my instructor.
My instructor and I made small talk as we entered the cafeteria where the rest of the class was waiting. Everyone looked nervous. One student asked, “Keith, was your experience as frightening as the rest of ours?” I said to my classmate, “At first I was nervous when I walked into my patient’s room, but we hit it off and everything went good.” The instructor then asked me what medications Mr. Radcliff was on and the side effects. I told her the name of the medications and adverse reactions most commonly seen with each medication. After I had answered her question, one by one she continued to ask the rest of the class similar questions. It was a working lunch. We were all eating lunch as we answered the instructor’s questions. After we all regrouped our thoughts and finished eating, it was time to go back to our patients. When we got to the floor our patients were on, the instructor would stop off at each of our patient’s room. When we stopped the whole class would meet each others patient. The first stop was an 87 years old female that another male nursing student was caring for. As I stood in front of the patient’s bathroom, the student walked into the bathroom. He turned the sink on for a few seconds and then turned it off. When he turned around he had a Urinal full of water. The instructor asked, “What do you have there Stevens?” His response was, “My patient said he was thirsty and I was feeling his pitcher up with water.” A few of us who witnessed this chuckled and he finally realized he filled up the man’s urinal with water. He was embarrassed and the instructor walked out of the room saying, “My, my, my.” I guess we all learn the hard way. She gathered the class together in the hall way and told us we did not have time to meet everyone’s patient. She told us to go back to our patients and continue where we had left off. At this time it was around 11am and the next medication pass was going to begin soon. I was going to give Medications for the first time.
As I was walking down the hall I heard a lot of commotion. I could see Mrs. Radcliff in the distance standing outside of Frank’s room. A man, I assumed was a Doctor, ran past me in a full sprint. As he was running down the hall his pager fell off his hip and he stopped and picked it up and ran into Frank’s room. I thought to myself, “What is going on?” As I got closer to Frank’s room, I could tell Mrs. Radcliff was crying hysterically. “What is the matter Mrs. Radcliff?” I asked. “He’s gone. My honey is gone!”, she said. I walked into Frank’s room and it was chaotic. There must have been six or seven people around Frank’s bed. I walked closer to the head of Frank’s bed. As I looked at Frank, I could tell something bad was wrong. His lips were purple and his eyes were fixed and staring at the ceiling. “CLEAR!” someone yelled out. Frank’s body then jerked violently as they tried to revive him by shocking him with the defibrillator. “CLEAR!” His body jerked again. The person doing chest compressions said, “You! Come here! Take over, I am tired!” She moved out of the way and grabbed my left arm and pulled me up to the place she had been standing. I placed my hand on Frank’s chest and began doing chest compressions. “Come on Frank, come on!” I said. I looked directly into Frank’s eyes and I could see nothing. No life, no sparkle, no Frank. “Time of death…..11:25am”, the Doctor said. Time of death? I had just talked to Frank and his wife right before lunch. Time of death? What the hell had just taken place right before my eyes? I walked out of the room and met Mrs. Radcliff in the hall. “He’s gone isn’t he?”, she said. “Yes ma’am, I am afraid he is. I am so sorry”. We walked down the hall together and went into a lounge where she could have some privacy. A Doctor came into the lounge and told Mrs. Radcliff that they believe Frank had thrown a blood clot. He said it was one of the risks with elderly patients following hip surgery. He said that he basically went into respiratory then cardiac arrest. The doctor left the room. Mrs. Radcliff continued to cry, but was much calmer then before. “What am I going to do without that man? He was my life!”, she said. “Just take one day at a time”, I said. I did not know what to say. I was still in shock myself at what had just happened. “After you left out of the room, he bragged on how good you were to him. I want to thank you for everything you did for him.” “Ma’am, it was my pleasure. Once again, I am so sorry.”
My instructor must have heard what had happened to my patient. She came into the lounge and gave her condolences to Mrs. Radcliff. “Come with me Mr. Humphries.”, said the instructor. We left the lounge area and went to the employee break room. She said, “Sit here for a few minutes and take a break”. I sat there by myself and reflected on what had occurred. As I sat there and thought of Frank, I got a lump in my throat and my chin started to quiver. After 80 years of Frank’s life and all the life experiences he had, I was the last person besides his wife that he saw before his death. I thought, “Is this the right career for me? Do I want to experience this again? Why would anyone want to do this?” The door of the break room opened. “Thank you once again for everything you did for my honey.” Mrs. Radcliff said. She walked over to me and gave me a hug and said, “Frank thought you were great.” She turned around and walked out of the room. With tears in my eyes I said to myself, “This is why people are in this career. I made a difference in someone’s life and that’s what made this day so special. I made a difference!

Posts: 1178 | From: Mobile, AL | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
andrew
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Writing a book and this is the first chapter. Need some in-put.....good, bad? Be honest.
Posts: 1178 | From: Mobile, AL | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
andrew
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Writing a book and this is the first chapter. Need some in-put.....good, bad? Be honest.
Posts: 1178 | From: Mobile, AL | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
andrew
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Sorry. I posted on wrong board.
Posts: 1178 | From: Mobile, AL | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
DDA
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you did
Posts: 749 | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

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