When I floated to the telemetry unit, I met a patient named T. T was homeless, and he was very angry at the world. He saw every situation in the most negative light possible and pointing out any positives only angered him more. In the hospital, we try so hard to help our patients see the glass half full, but to T the glass was not only half gone, it was completely empty.
Maylin was T's nurse that day and I had the pleasure of working with her. T snapped and yelled at the staff all day, despite how much we tried to help him. No matter how much Maylin tried, T tried harder to stay angry. Maylin never lost her patience.
At the end of the day, we were getting T ready to leave. He was upset, he shouted about how he had nowhere to go and that no one cared. After Maylin gave T his discharge instructions, she gave T a twenty dollar bill. She said it was all the money she had brought with her to work that day.
I then saw something so touching. T looked at her and started to cry. He said, "I can't believe you would help me after the way I treated you".
Maylin restored a small bit of faith in T that day. It wasn't just about the money, it was that she cared.