Sometimes it's the little things that make nurses so special. It's the kindness. The other day Dr. V caught me on the run and said "I need to talk to you for a minute. You know how fast I am, right? Well the other day a very sick patient came in. I got there in less than a minutes and Conni Papillon and Sharon had everything set up on that patient. It was remarkable." I knew there was more to that story, but it was something that Dr. V couldn't put into words at that moment. It's the art of nursing. Conni is very passionate about her care and she'll be the first to admit that sometimes she blurts things out because of her frustration with not being able to give 100% to her patients, usually because of circumstances beyond her control, like when we're flooded with patients.
My experience with Conni is a bit different than most people because my first encounter with her was one of the most remarkable acts of kindness I have ever witnessed in my nursing career. They say you only get one chance to make a good first impression and I will never forget my first encounter with Conni. It was during my first week at PMC and a prominent member of the community arrested at home and was brought to the ED. As I came into work they had been resuscitating the patient for an hour. Conni was heading the team, but more important, she was coordinating the family. There were probably 20 visitors and rather than send them out to the reception area, Conni decided to allow them into the resuscitation room in pairs. I was very disturbed to see a resuscitation going on for more than an hour and spoke to the physician who explained that this was a long-term chronically ill patient from another facility and he called them out of courtesy to let them know what was going on prior to stopping the code. Instead he was told not to stop and to keep going until the patient could be stabilized and flown to Philadelphia.
During the 2-hour plus ordeal Connie went from the patient to staff, to family and kept this challenging situation under control. I learned a valuable lesson that day because this prolonged code also provided the family the opportunity to process what was going on with their loved one. I watched them go through the stages of grieving from initially being in denial, "How can this be happening after all he's been through?" Through anger and concern that everything was being done properly. I heard family members while peering into the room say, "Hey, the nurse (Conni) just told you what's going on. They're doing everything they can. I don't think he's going to make it."
Finally, one by one the family reached the stage of acceptance, and Dr. V decided it was time to stop. In a world of efficiency, sometimes we lose the perspective that the emotional side of care takes time, which is something Conni appreciates.
After the patient had passed away I went to the Family Room to check in on them. The wife had been holding vigil there while other family members went in and out of the resuscitation room to observe and give her status updates. Shortly after I got there, Conni arrived. I allowed her to take over. She walked up to the wife, held her hand and said "I'm sorry. We did the best we could do. It just wasn't meant to be." The wife responded "I know you all did and I thank you." The family gathered around and Connie gave them more details of what had been done and they were very, very appreciative. They said "Please tell everyone thank you."
Sometimes I'm challenged to describe for non-nurses what nursing is all about. What it is about is being let into someone's life at their most vulnerable moments and a good nurse does the little things that are the BIG things like showing kindness, compassion, caring, listening, holding their hand, and providing awesome clinical care even in times of crisis.
So, as I said to Dr. V, "I know what kind of nurse Conni is, you don't need to say anything more." Conni Papillon is an Extraordinary Nurse.