A couple months ago, I was surprised to learn that I needed surgery. As nurses, we know way too much, and I spent some time in intent thought about everything that could go wrong. I did not, however, consider what might happen if I received less than stellar nursing care because I knew at BRMC, my nursing family would take excellent care of me. I remember my famous last words before surgery, "That medicine isn't making me sleepy..." The next thing I remember was a lot of voices yelling at me that I needed to wake up.
The next thing I remember is the intense fear that set in. Imagine wanting to tell the yelling voices, "I want to breathe, but I can't." I remember nurses saying things like, "Is she ok?" "Did her sat come up?" Again, the fear inside, but I couldn't speak. I tried, but nothing but mumbling would come out. Then, the retching started. My internal voice is saying, "Now you're in trouble, you're going to vomit and aspirate because you can't talk and tell anyone you're about to throw up!" And here's where I opened my eyes and saw my nurse. I saw Sue sitting beside me, ready with the emesis basin, anticipating my needs, and reassuring me. The fear went away. "You're ok", she said.
I couldn't speak, but it was like Sue read my mind. She told me she was giving me medicine for the nausea. She told me what my blood pressure was, she told me what my pulse ox was, all the things a nurse must be wandering. Despite my heavily sedated nature, she kept talking to me and telling me how I was doing, updating me on my condition. "You're ok," she kept saying. She must have known I needed to hear it. I overheard her telling the doctor what she was going to do if I got nauseated again, heard her giving report, everything done with expert skill, and every time I could muster the energy to open my eyes, there she was looking at me, saying "You're ok."
This may seem like a simple story of a patient who had a great recovery room nurse. But this is really a story of a nurse who has a very scary recovery but found herself safe in the hands of a highly skilled clinician who not only kept me safe from harm, but cared for me, as a human and as a nurse. Every time I opened my eyes, I saw my nurse, and I felt safe. There's no greater feeling.