Last night we were contacted, as a team, to assist with a patient in severe respiratory distress. A few minutes after arriving and realizing the gravity of the situation, the patient expressed his wishes to allow a natural death. He was obviously frustrated and very anxious. His current emotional state was negatively impacting his respiratory status and compounding his discomfort.
This patient had been hospitalized and had been battling his illness for an extended amount of time. He had alerted the physicians and his family to his wishes a few times, but each took the opportunity to change his mind. This night he was sure that he had no desire for additional treatment and no desire to notify his family. He didn't want his family to see him this way. We spoke with the physician and pleaded the case for this patient. We wanted his death to be as peaceful as possible. The on-call provider was reluctant to make any terminal decisions without consulting the physician in charge. We all stood in the hallway discussing what would be our next move if the physician did not move forward with allowing comfort measures and then I looked in the room. There stood Gus.
Gus had walked back in the room once the on-call provider left and stood at the bedside of the patient. He spoke very few words, but the patient knew he was there. He must have stood there for almost thirty minutes. No talking…just being present. The patient relaxed enough that his respiratory distress improved and he fell asleep. Here we were following the politically correct way to make this patient comfortable, and Gus followed the human way. His evaluation of the current situation and the needs of this patient allowed him to step outside of that emergency mindset and give this man the respectful and calm environment he needed.
This may not seem like much, but the ability to repeatedly perform in emergency situations and retain that quality of human caring is definitely exceptional and is characteristic of the nurse that the DAISY Award represents.