Nurse Externship

Ok...this did not happen in the NICU, but I felt it was important to post it so that I would never forget it, and so I could share this story with those who read this blog. This event takes place while I was working as a nurse extern at a hospital in Dallas, Texas this past summer.

My preceptor and I have a 7 day old patient that was admitted for neonatal fever yesterday. She is on the teaching service so she has an attending physician, residents, interns, and med students. The team decided that the baby needed a lumbar puncture scheduled for after lunch. I went with my preceptor to the patients room and carried the patient to the treatment room. while my preceptor was getting the room ready for the procedure, I was left alone for a few minutes holding the patient. I took advantage of this time to prepare the patient for the procedure. I verbally spoke to the patient about what to expect during the procedure. I told the patient that the procedure would hurt, but that we would be there to take care of her. I also told her that when they stuck her with the needle to make her body go numb. (I borrowed from you and your story about your sister's chest tubes.) The patient had refused her pacifier all day as a means of consolation up to this point. As the procedure began we dipped her pacifier in Sweeties and she began to suck vigorously on it. To complicate things, a new intern was going to perform the procedure under the guidance of a resident and an attending, and this was the intern's first time to perform this procedure. The patient only cried briefly when they actually poked her. She did not cry at all during the preparation for the procedure, even though she had been irritable all day when being moved or touched. When the intern actually stuck her with the needle, I told her in my head to go numb. To my amazement the intern was successful in her first attempt and only had to stick the baby once. The baby also did not cry throughout the duration of the procedure. This is just another example of how connected we can be to our patients.