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The relationship between a nurse patient and any attending
medical staff can be complicated, some nurses admitted,
particularly if the staff member is a colleague or a
supervisor.
Patricia Kaldor, MSN, RN, was a senior vice president
of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Milwaukee when
she was first admitted to the hospital for breast cancer
in 1997. Throughout the next year, she endured chemotherapy
and eventually bone marrow transplant surgery. Kaldor
had daily contact with oncology staff members who knew
both who she was-a hospital executive-and what she knew
as a surgical care specialist.
"I think probably most nurses might have been
nervous about taking care of the hospital's chief operating
officer. I'm also a nurse, so I know their trade,"
Kaldor said. She noticed some nurses who were apologetic
over routine matters, such as sheet changes, but "I
was always trying to be reassuring to them. I didn't
want them to feel awkward," Kaldor said.
"We just had an affinity for each other,"
Kaldor said. "She was there on the night when my
white cell count started coming up, which is always
a gleeful day for the nursing staff … so to this
day, when we see each other, we always ask how the other's
doing."
Mundy, the Baltimore nurse, believes some of the support
techs were nervous about dealing with her and appearing
mistake-prone or incompetent. All nurses and technicians
at the hospital know her because she serves as the orientation
program leader at Mercy Medical. She had to reassure
one tech, "Just pretend you don't even know me,"
after struggling to insert an IV into her.
Knowing how a fellow nurse feels was natural, but most
of the nurses said they were surprised about how much
they learned about the patient viewpoint. "I know
now … how vulnerable people feel, and how fearful
of even some types of simple procedures people might
feel," said Benoit, who is faculty coordinator
of the Lafayette (La.) General Medical Center School
of Health Sciences.
Benoit remembers recently visiting with an inconsolable
patient about to undergo a routine angioplasty. "She
simply needed somebody to sit by the bed and say, 'Hey,
you're scared, tell me what you're feeling,' "
Benoit said.
The patient was scared of dying, but also of simply
becoming incontinent while under anesthesia. "Once
she was able to talk about it … she got it off
her chest, and we were able to get a move on."
Bokern, the breast cancer survivor, thought she connected
well with the patients she's counseled and treated for
most of her career at Barnes-Jewish. But she acknowledged
that her experience as a patient has given her an added
closeness to other patients.
Getting sick "gave me even better insight about
how important it is to communicate. You're worrying
about your life and your priorities. When I tell a patient
what I've experienced, they look at me differently,
like they really do know it's not something I've read
about or something I know because I work in this field.
"They have a sigh of relief-'You're the real deal,'
" Bokern said.
Contact Glen Fest at glenf@nurseweek.com
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