I hired Jennifer in rehab and she transferred to 9c1 when they opened. We still talk, and today she shared this moving story with me:
"Some days in nursing just stand out. Today will always be one of them. As I walked in to meet my new admission, I find this patient crying, and pulling at her hair. As I got closer, I sat on the bed next to her and asked her what was wrong. She said, 'I'm so sorry I'm crying, I just had my chemo treatment a few weeks ago and it started today, every time I run my hands through it, chunks of hair come out and it just needs to come out'.
She had a bag with locks of hair. And would just cry. She said, 'I've always had long hair'. I wasn't sure what to say, I put my arms around her and said, 'let's do this together, I'll brush your hair like girls do at sleepovers and we will play your favorite music, what's your favorite type of music?' She smiled and said, 'The Eagles' so I pulled out my phone, and played 70's rock and went and grabbed a brush and a towel. I brushed her hair pulling chunk by chunk out, it was just like in the movies, collecting all I could to place in the bag for her. We talked about her life and I would massage her scalp intermittently. I then had her sit in the shower, and with a razor in one hand and shaving cream in the other (and her music in the background of course), I shaved the rest of her hair.
In the shower, we made up a name for her new alter ego that was going to kick cancer's butt, and laughed and sang to the great music.
I knew that I was going to get so behind on my work but I didn't care, I knew that this is exactly where I needed to be and that this was more important than passing any medication at that time. When she got out of the shower and saw herself in the mirror, she screamed and cried. We hugged and then she said, 'it's ok, my alter ego's got this'. When I got her back to bed, I went to the bathroom, stared at my own long and healthy hair and wept. How easy it is to take our health for granted.
Later that afternoon, I noticed she hadn't eaten lunch, when I asked her why, she said she didn't like it, but didn't want to bother anyone. I asked her what she would like, what she was craving. She said, 'a Big Mac and a sweet tea, but I'll take anything else at this point'. Given the day she had, it was the least I could do, so I ran downstairs and got her just that. I won't forget her smile her gratitude and most importantly, her reminder to me to be grateful."
This is one small example of the kind of nurse Jennifer is. However, her stories just like this are endless. She is constantly "personalizing" nursing care for her patients. As her current manager said, "She always keeps the heart of nursing as the priority of her care."