— By Brandy Couchot, Senior —
Brandy is caring for patients at CHI St. Luke’s Health and sees firsthand the impact she is making.
7AM
“Are you the nurse?” An elderly patient squints at my name badge.
“I am a student nurse extern, I will be helping out the nurse today with your care.”
The patient ponders this for a moment. “Ah, okay. Nice to meet you.”
11AM
The family comes to visit.
“This right here is my sweetheart.” The patient points at me and glances over at his son. The son smiles back at his father, but you can tell there is more to the story.
The son later approaches me in the hallway, “Thanks for taking care of him, my mom died from an infection a few months ago and I’m afraid that is what’s happening to him.”
7PM
“Is there anything else I can get you before I leave?”
“No, but will you be back tomorrow?” questions the patient.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t be back for a few days.”
“Oh okay…well I think you will make a great nurse and wanted to let you know that.”
It is times like these that make you extremely grateful you decided to be a student nurse extern. You have the opportunity to spend multiple days with your patients and their families. Then you return a few days later, unaware of their current state. Have they been discharged? Did they move to the ICU? I hope they are recovering. What you do know is that you did a few things to enhance their care for a few days, which ended up making a big difference. Having the extern experience has allowed for moments like these to occur. If you were curious, the patient I mentioned above I saw walking in the halls a few days later. Something he once wasn’t able to do.