on a true calling...

Having read over the blog of a fellow nurse, I decided it was time to voice some of my thoughts on what I do, and why I do it. http://mediblogopathy.blogspot.com/

Although hers is almost a complete opposite of my unit, this lady voiced it very well, and I encourage folks to check her out. Very insightfull. Her blog is linked in the title of this post.

I work in a Long Term Acute Care unit. LTAC for those familiar with it. We take care of the sickest of the sick that no longer qualify for ICU. My particular unit has the highest acuity of all of the simillar units in our system. We get the folks that measure hospital stays in weeks instead of days. Long term venalator weaning, stage III and IV decube ulcers, multiple diagnosis management, long term IV antibiotics and sometimes those patients that have no other placement options, those are ours to have and protect, to serve and defend. We defend them against infection, against disease processes, against loneliness sometimes, against themselves sometimes, and we do the best job we can with the medical tools and information that we have.

Due to the critical nature of our patients, they usually only hire nurses with ICU experience. I managed to get in with cardiac telemetery experience and some impressive grades in nursing school. But out of the approximately 40 nurses that we have in our pool, only 4 are LVN's, myself included, so I am pretty blessed to be here.

So to get to the point, we see alot of death in our unit. Most of these patients are medically complex and have very little in the way of 'reserves' left by the time they get to us. Many of them have been chronically ill, in and out of treatment for years, or have such an acute illness it has drained the energy from them almost completely. Sometimes we have a miricle happen. The vent patient that we though would die in the first few nights that is finially weaned off, and weeks later walks out of our hosptial under his own power. Those are so rare and held so dear to my heart. More often it's the family of a critically ill loved one that just says a thank you for taking such good care of mom or dad, that's what touches my heart.

I like my unit because normally I actually do have time.... time to devote to making those extra special rounds, seeing to it that pt 304 gets the chocolate Boost because that's her favorite. Time to know the names of pt 314's kids, and what they all did/do for a living. Time to listen, and time to let them know that they are special and someone does care. Somedays they do far more for me, than I could possibly have the expertises to do for them. A smile here or a nod of the head there. That's my passion.

I remember a story that I heard once, I think it was in a sunday school class....

a man was walking along a beach in the early morning, walking between the tide lines. The beach was covered in thousands of star fish, and the man was steadily picking up a starfish at a time, and throwing them back into the water. A jogger passed by the man, and told him he was a fool, the sun would be up and kill all the remaining starfish in a few minutes. The man said, "I know that," and continued to rescue the starfish and throw them back into the ocean. The jogger shook his head and told the man, "what's it matter, you can't save all the starfish, they'll just die when the sun hits them." The man continues to pick up the little sea creatures and throw them back to safety. The jogger watches for a while, unable to stand it, he asks the man why. The man replies, "I can't save them all, but this one I can, and it matters to this one."

It matters to THIS one. That's a thought that goes through my head alot.

later all