Brandy Pruitt
February 2019
Brandy
Pruitt
,
LPN
The Medical Intensive Care Unit
Centra Health - Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency
Lynchburg
,
VA
United States

 

 

 

I have said many times to medical personnel recording family history the nature of my father's death. Usually, I say, "He committed suicide". But for some unknown reason, to Brandy, I said, "He shot himself". What happened next moved me emotionally as I have never experienced in a medical facility. Brandy stopped completely, left her laptop and turned to me. She said with enormous compassion "That must have been so horrible for you and your family." She said a few more sentences, but I was captivated by her first sentence. She approached what I said with enormous feeling, understanding, empathy, and comfort. Her voice was low as though she did not want to spend any energy because she wanted all her attention to be directly given to me. What made this so unusual for me was that Brandy brought her whole self into the room for me. Lots of times medical personnel are distracted and sometimes just emotionally and physically tired. But Brandy was right there to offer understanding and kindness with abundance directly for me. I have never experienced this depth of caring and empathy from a nurse before, and I doubt I will ever forget it.