The passion of nursing...

This past week I have been working on the pediatric floor. On Friday July 7, 2011 I was able to comfort and reassure a worried mom. The patient I worked with was OM. who was a 1mo male whose parents are from Bangladesh and have lived on the Terceira for 2 years. The family has no social support on the island and can understand limited Portuguese. OM came into the hospital with an ear infection. OM presented with vigorous crying and no fever. He is currently on 130mg of amoxicillin for the ear infection. I had the opportunity to care for OM for 2 days. The mother was not at the hospital on my first day of care because the night before she was admitted to the ED for abdominal pain. The mother was told by the doctors that she needed her gallbladder removed. Mom was extremely concerned about the surgery and who would take care of her baby postop. She expressed to the nurse that her husband could not take care of OM because he was a man and did not know how and that she wanted OM to stay in the hospital while she had her surgery and was recovering.

At first Mom was very uneasy and would pace up and down the room. The nurses and doctor were not helpful because they would talk to each other in Portuguese while another nurse spoke in broken English to the mother. I felt awful for the mother because of all the chaos going on in the room. No one was communicating effectively to the mother which further increased her anxiety. After the nurses left I stayed behind in the room and tried to talk to her. I asked her how she was doing and attempted to ease her mind. I was able to communicate to her that her gallbladder removal was tentative on more specific lab results which would be done in the near future and that before her surgery the hospital would get in contact with social services to find a nurse or nanny to take care of OM while she was recovering. After speaking to Mom for 30mins she was relieved and less anxious. Instead of pacing the room she sat in a chair and would smile at me. Her posture was also relaxed.

Had I not been on the unit that day, I believe this mother would not have been given the proper care due to miscommunication and a language barrier. I am glad that I was able to sit and talk with her and ease her mind. I was reminded all over again why I want to be a nurse and that sometimes it’s the little things of asking what is on someone’s mind and putting a hand on their arm that makes the difference.