I was giving report to the next nurse. I gave her a mini warning that this person can be temperamental and labile in their mood, but it’s nothing you can’t talk them out of. That nurse’s first question? “Do we have any medication to calm her down?”
I drove home thinking about that and it disappointed me. This wasn’t the first time I heard it, but it was different this time because it came from a new nurse. You hear stories about how nurses are supposed to provide that caring touch that no one else in the hospital provides. And at least for me, I’m not in the habit of using medication as my first line in situations like that. I still believe in therapeutic communication, no matter how laughable it was to all of us in nursing school. Because the mindset is #aintnobodygottimeforthat.
It’s unfortunate that we live in a generation where quick fixes are the go to for problems that have deeper roots – in life and in the hospital. It’s sad that as nurses, we sometimes rely on these quick fixes just so that our shift goes a little smoother too. It’s horrible that workflow can’t function better to benefit the nurse and the patient.
People might laugh, but I spent 10 minutes each time I was in the room with this specific patient, just talking, asking about what they liked, if they have a family… little things. That time I spent building rapport made my time giving meds not so difficult. Repositioning was easier. Meal time was easier. At one point, my patient told me they loved me LOL! (Yes, it was awkward). My charge nurse came in to see this patient because she didn’t believe that I was having a smooth shift. Apparently, this one raised hell in the past couple of days beforehand.
I think I’ve worked with hundreds of nurses in the short time I’ve been working. I’ve trained under at least under 12 different nurses while training at different units. I absolutely know what kind of nurse I want to be and I know what kind of nurse I don’t want to be. I hope that at the very least, new nurses always remember what brought them into the profession in the first place and they don’t brush off the importance of human connection. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from other disciplines and it’s one of the reasons I chose this profession in the first place.