New Nurse
Tomorrow our new nurse starts. Let me just get the whining out of the way ... "I HATE THIS!"
I hate leaving Jack in the hands of someone I do not know. I've not met the new nurse yet. I was supposed to meet her last Monday when she was scheduled to work a half-day, but she called and said she couldn't work (not a good start). I have to rely on Kristi's assessment of her (who's opinion I trust implicitly) and, according to Kristi, this person is knowledgeable and comfortable with trach/vent kids. However, equally as important as finding someone who has the skills to care for Jack, is finding someone who will treat Jack as a person, not simply as a job. Kristi told me that the new nurse commented as Kristi was doing Jack's morning routine, that Jack is very lucky because she can see how much Kristi truly cares for Jack. She said she's seen many nurses who don't begin to treat their patients as well as Kristi treats Jack. Kristi shared this with me, not to toot her own horn, but to point out that this new nurse clearly knows the difference between good care and bad care. It gives me some comfort to know that this new nurse recognizes the difference. It is so important to find a nurse who will be gentle with Jack, who will listen - and respond - to what he is "telling" them, and who will respect Jack as a human being. It sounds like that would be a given, but sadly ... that's not always the case with a non-verbal, immobile, 100% dependent patient, especially when the patient is not a cute little baby anymore (and that's a whole other blog topic for another day).
In any event, the only reason I'm even okay with this new nurse coming on board is because Mark is off on Mondays, so he will be home to keep an eye on things. Based on Kristi's observations, I'm cautiously optimistic that the new nurse will be good with Jack and everything will be okay.
Wish us luck!
1 comment:
Oh Ann- I am so sorry. I do understand how this feels. In fact last night we had a new night nurse (we had completely done away with night nursing but our agency called last week and said they had someone if we wanted to give it another try..) I laid there the entire night in a constant state of anxiety. Every time I heard Faith cough and gag (and no suction machine going off) my stomach would turn (and we did end up intervening). I kept pondering how long it takes until you completely trust someone- we have yet to have a night nurse who I can sleep soundly with...and up until now a day nurse where I can go to work worry free. It's just hard. I think you have to go through about 20 “bad ones” to find one that works… I hope this one works out for you.
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