In the Job Description

Often times people describe a nurse as a person who saves lives and most of the time they are right. I love where I work because most of our patients get better and go home relatively soon after they have surgery, it’s happy; they use to be sick but now they are better and their quality of life has improved. This last week though I experienced, for the first time, the other side of what nurses do; help patients die comfortably. I don’t wish to get into the details of this patient to respect the family and patient’s right to privacy. Needless to say that putting a patient on comfort measures is both good and bad. It’s good because it respects the wishes of the patient and family, but at the same time you have to admit defeat, that what you do doesn’t always work.

Less then twenty-four hours after being put on comfort measures the patient died. I don’t consider myself a religious person but more and more often I have started to say, and believe, patients are in a better place after they pass. I don’t know if I believe in heaven or any sort of after life, but I think almost anything is better then lying in a dark hospital room.