Heal The Person, Not Just The Body

Funny thing - old story came out in my Clinical Performance Appraisal (which I aced!) yesterday. Speaking about my approach to patient care during the past semester, I brought up the memory of a patient I'd handled as a tech in a local hospital. I took the job as a way of advancing my basic nursing skills, so I had a long-range focus even though it is essentially an
entry-level job.

The man was an ex-Marine (as am I) and he was also a diabetic and had respiratory issues. His disease left him essentially dependent on help for all his daily activities including personal hygiene and toileting. He was a proud man and did not respond well to the workmanlike attitudes of many of the career techs. He developed a reputation as being unpleasant and a bit of
a burden.

I approach all patients in a positive way despite reputations and I did so with him. He was not happy needing help with cleaning up the mess left from bowel movements or needing to be shaved or needing help repositioning himself in bed every two hours so sores wouldn't develop. Yet he also wasn't fond of the consequences of ignoring these need, either. I saw this in the first ten seconds of knowing him and I went in treating his just as he was: a complete human being in a rather unpleasant predicament. Instead of treating him as a job, I related to him as I would a friend. I did the tasks needed and I joked with him in a guy way about the various duties - no
ladies need eavesdrop!

Before long, we were sharing laughs (as best he could with reduced lung capacity) while I inspected skin, held his urinal or washed the stool off his backside. I treated him gently when I needed to move him around - he was quite wasted - but I treated in equally when we talked. His mood improved and his reputation proved unwarranted.

His family praised me, proving that this simple approach wasn't something they were used to seeing, and that is a shame. He eventually died, but I believe he did so with some sense of dignity and I think a part of that was due to the fact that I treated him as a human being. This lesson belongs in every nursing school and tech orientation!

I had a very limited scope of practice as a tech, but even without meds or dressings or diagnostic privileges, I had the one tool that makes the most difference to a patient: my attitude. We each have this awesome power to impact the person standing beside us and never have I seen a more powerful reason to do so than with the example of this man who needed simple human empathy more than all the expensive medical equipment he was surrounded with.

He is actually one of the reasons I chose psych nursing, in fact. There's no sense healing the body if the person inside is ignored.

If you ever get sick, you be sure to point out to everyone from the doctor to the tech that you are a human being, not a walking pathophysilogy!

Neal Vonada

(December, 1926 - April, 2008)
http://www.qagrizzlies.org/Features/Profiles/Vonada_profile.htm

I met Neal on MPositive. I was looking for a place to enjoy folks who seek to always look up and look forward – not always easy! In Neal, however, I found a kindred spirit who not only walked the talk, but who had endless stories from a life rich in positivity. He was not only committed, but also on a mission to bring his perspective to the world.

Neal once named me Word Weaver after reading a post of mine. I loved the name – he had that effect. He encouraged my attempts to bring positivity to my peers and my patients, and he urged me to expand my horizons without fear, as he himself had done. He reached across a continent and touched me, adding a little more gold to my life. I grew because of him.

I will miss Neal, yet I can't bring myself to bask in my own grief over this man's passing. It would disappoint him. Instead, I acknowledge my loss and then I look around to see who I can bring his legacy to in this moment. As he would desire. For as long as I am able to reach out with our message, he will still be touching this world.

Neal often told the story of how he would get babies to stop crying in various public places. Such a simple gift to give the mother, such a fitting image for Grandpatime, a superhero of simple things who appeared from nowhere and shared happiness. I wrote this haiku for him and, to me, it summarizes all things Neal:

When the baby cried
And the mother wanted to,
His smile was welcomed.

Thank you,

Darrell G. King
Rochester, NY, US