Jamie L Nelson
November 2025
Jamie L
Nelson
,
RN
84-1 Community Living Center
Battle Creek VA Medical Center
Battle Creek
,
MI
United States
Due to this constant level of care, this Veteran made almost a complete turnaround.
I have two specific instances of Jamie Nelson making a profound difference in veterans' care.
The first happened when a Veteran became very lethargic and would respond verbally to verbal stimuli but would not open his eyes. He was refusing to eat or drink anything and not really interacting with staff, which was not his normal baseline personality. This went on for several days, and the Veteran was sent out to the hospital for testing, and it was determined that he had an infection; however, during this time, he became very emaciated. He also developed sores in his mouth from being so dry, and that caused him to not want to eat or drink anything, even more so due to it being so painful.
This Veteran is a total care, and at times can be a lengthy process to feed him. Two IV infusion nurses were consulted to attempt to place an IV to try and get some fluids in him. Unfortunately, they were not able to gain access, and the Veteran continued to decline. The Veteran's mother was contacted, who is his decision maker regarding transferring the Veteran back to the hospital for a higher level of care.
After some discussion with the family, his mother decided to instead change his code status to DNR and the Chaplin was notified to please come visit. However, Jamie was not ready to give up on this Veteran.
Over the course of the next several days, she would sit with the Veteran and get him to drink. Almost once an hour, you would find her in his room spoon-feeding him some kind of liquid in an attempt to rehydrate him. During meal times, she would sit with him for more than an hour just to make sure he got all of his fluids and anything else she could get him to eat.
Due to this constant level of care, this Veteran made almost a complete turnaround. He is now back to his baseline of laughing and joking with staff members, and he is now back to eating and drinking normally without sores in his mouth from being overly dry.
The next incident was regarding a Veteran who was having a lot of left lower leg pain. The veteran had been complaining of it for a little while and was being given pain medication for it with positive results; however, Jamie strongly believed that something else was going on, and so she kept insisting to the providers that a CT should be done to make sure that the Veteran did not have a DVT.
After a couple of days, an order for a CT was obtained, and Jamie was correct that the Veteran had a very large femoral vein clot, and the Veteran needed to go to the hospital right away. Due to her dedication and constant insistence, she may have saved this veteran's life.
Jamie consistently puts her Veterans first, and these are just two times that I know of that she has saved Veterans' lives. Our care and dedication to our Veterans is better because we have nurses like her working on our units.
The first happened when a Veteran became very lethargic and would respond verbally to verbal stimuli but would not open his eyes. He was refusing to eat or drink anything and not really interacting with staff, which was not his normal baseline personality. This went on for several days, and the Veteran was sent out to the hospital for testing, and it was determined that he had an infection; however, during this time, he became very emaciated. He also developed sores in his mouth from being so dry, and that caused him to not want to eat or drink anything, even more so due to it being so painful.
This Veteran is a total care, and at times can be a lengthy process to feed him. Two IV infusion nurses were consulted to attempt to place an IV to try and get some fluids in him. Unfortunately, they were not able to gain access, and the Veteran continued to decline. The Veteran's mother was contacted, who is his decision maker regarding transferring the Veteran back to the hospital for a higher level of care.
After some discussion with the family, his mother decided to instead change his code status to DNR and the Chaplin was notified to please come visit. However, Jamie was not ready to give up on this Veteran.
Over the course of the next several days, she would sit with the Veteran and get him to drink. Almost once an hour, you would find her in his room spoon-feeding him some kind of liquid in an attempt to rehydrate him. During meal times, she would sit with him for more than an hour just to make sure he got all of his fluids and anything else she could get him to eat.
Due to this constant level of care, this Veteran made almost a complete turnaround. He is now back to his baseline of laughing and joking with staff members, and he is now back to eating and drinking normally without sores in his mouth from being overly dry.
The next incident was regarding a Veteran who was having a lot of left lower leg pain. The veteran had been complaining of it for a little while and was being given pain medication for it with positive results; however, Jamie strongly believed that something else was going on, and so she kept insisting to the providers that a CT should be done to make sure that the Veteran did not have a DVT.
After a couple of days, an order for a CT was obtained, and Jamie was correct that the Veteran had a very large femoral vein clot, and the Veteran needed to go to the hospital right away. Due to her dedication and constant insistence, she may have saved this veteran's life.
Jamie consistently puts her Veterans first, and these are just two times that I know of that she has saved Veterans' lives. Our care and dedication to our Veterans is better because we have nurses like her working on our units.