I had two patients that had a stroke, one was male the other a female.  The male patient had great hope for himself, that he was going to purchase a a house on the cape and have his family come and live with him.  But it all ended when he had another stroke which killed him.

He taught me how to prepare his breakfast, then I cleaned his house, did his laundry and was always greatfull snf got his favorite food which was chocolate cake, or anything else.

The other a woman who also had a stroke, to which I bathe and dressed her and did some exercises.  She loved to dance and I was at the time taking balldroom dance lessons and she loved to see me show her the new steps i have learned and the shoes I purchased.

Somehow  the agency I worked for  replaced me because of the cost of the gas at the time.

 I also had some extreamly great clients at a Senior Center.

I worked at a Catholic Nursing Home and one of my favorite patients was a Priest.  He was 90 years old. Father would swing his door open and come out of his room like a man on a mission.  One day I asked him father can I help you. He stopped looked at me and said yes you can tell me why I left my room and why I'm in such a hurry to get there. I told him I don't know but since you are here you can take your tylenol.  He said good I didn't use up all that energy for nothing.   Another patient was an elderly homeless man we admitted to our Hospice Home.  He would buy a fifth of Jack Daniels at the first of the month and it was to last him all month but would be gone by the 15th.  He called the prayer hotline so much they finally had to block his number.  Visitors and staff would have to read the bible to him.  The night before he died I made rounds and read a chapter from Mark to him.  He asked me when it said I go and prepare a place for you does that mean me also.  I told him yes you too.  He died that night in his sleep.  He was a very colorful character and was missed.

I work in an ER, last week we were having an awful evening, very busy and short staffed again. I was covering my assignment and the Fast track,the fast trach nurse having been pulled for a trauma. We had had more of our share of drug seekers. The last patient of the night,was very needy. He needed me to go over them several times,before he was satified. On his way out the door he turned thanked me for my time and told me that I had helped him more than anyone ever had and left. Suddenly the evening felt pretty good.

My favorite patient was an elderly gentleman with CHF.  When I entered the room, he would sing hymns to me and tell me he was going to meet Jesus very soon.  I never went in his room that he was not smiling.  Before he was discharged, his son came to visit.  When I went in, his son told me that his dad had told him that my son was covered by the Blood of Jesus.  They had no way of knowing that my son was actually struggling with some issues.  I will never forget his courage, faith, and smile.

A great patient depends on the nurse. If you believe in yourself and take what made you a nurse to begin with, you will always have great patients. There are always those that are the "perfect patient" but it is the patient that is noncompliant, a little grumpy, and just plain hard to deal with that mark your career and teach you the most. What challenges do you really get from the so called "great patient"? Think about it.

" I can agree with you about ," being typecasted", when nurses are admitted to the hospital,( as a patient),

 and,unfortunately, are rendered," substandard care". January,2002: I was diagnosed with Paroxysmal,Atrial Tachycardia,

  thus, was scheduled to undergo an ," Ablation Study",@ a high-skilled,teaching hospital,( Anonymous ).

  My identity and occupation were well-documented in my medical record,too.

  ** The bottom line:For being a post-op patient on complete,bedrest,foley catheter and unanswered ,call bell,

    *** I literally feared for my health,as well as safety. ( The 11-7 RN wrote my grievances-off as," post-sedative anxiety")

  From being verbally-abused by the CNAS,( I was unable to speak-back/ anesthesia), intravenous line dry / irritated,

  Telemetry leads," purposely-disconnected", thus failed effort to obtain any attention and subjected to ,

 " horrific screams coming from the elderly patient across the hallway,"( God only knows what went on!)

   The next morning,the Cardiology Team payed their visit to ," discuss my interesting case";whereby I was more than

    satisfied informing them:" Your doctors render excellent care,though your nursing staff is for the dogs!"

   *** ( Sometimes, it pays to be on the other side of the siderail.)***

i am presently working in a 23bedded male medical ward ,although the work is tredious but  i find it instresting because of the kind of patients i am caring for,all of them are my favorite because they are very appreciative and cooperating,but there is one of them that i love so much ,he is just a wonderful young man ,i never see him sad ,always will to learn new thing ,he is a diabetic patient with dm foot ,he is so much adhrent to his care regimes that he rarely have any crisis whether hypoglyceamic and hyperglyceamic .although yet to be married at 40 years of age ,no reliable livehood ,it is one church sponsoring all medical expenses, despite all these negative situation about him;  to him no sad moments . he very possible about life and believe in God ability to change his situations  

GITANO_RN says ...

Unquestionably, I have had many perfect patients & patients that had inspired me to continue my beloved nursing career. One gentleman comes to mind, we shall call him Bob, a 48yr.white male, he came to my care when I was a staff nurse in ICU at the V.A. in NYC.  Bob, was a victim of a runaway vechicle accident, he came in with all four extremites in compound fractured, to make matters worse Bob was a diabetic on NPH, Hypertensive, & CABAG x2.   After numerous surgeries, Bob lost his lower extremities, then began having chest pains with a slightly elevated Troponin 1.9 & depressed T waves, the dignosis was possible Myocarditis.  Moreover, during this time there was talk of him losing both upper extremeties as well, and in the mist of all this his wife of 10yrs. left him for his best friend. However, with all of this chaos surrounding him, Bob, tend to cheer everyone who met him, he would make jokes, and never complain of any pain even though I learn to read his expressions when he was in severe pain.  Furthermore,while in the hospital months went by, and Bob received the divorce papers from his wife, he even wish them both the best as he signed with and X his signature.  Everytime I went on duty I would hope that I was assigned to Bob, he's one of those people that you can't explain but they make everyone that they come in contact feel great about life itself.  We spend many holidays together, on Halloween he wanted to be the "Lion in the Wizzard" so I went and got a costume and made sure everything fit well the entire staff took pictures with Bob.  The next day I got the pictures develop and ran to the hospital to share with Bob how great they came out.  Although I encounted a folded mattress, Bob died during the night, however, the night crew told me that even in his dying bed he was making sure that everyone was okay and that he was in peace... I felt a deep sharp lump in my throat and ran to the restroom & cried my heart out, but then I remembered what Bob use to say... " If I made you laugh Romano, please pass that gift to someone that needs to see the light in their dark hour".... I shall never forget Bob, and what he taught me as a human being, never to loose hope & when life gives you obstacles, those are placed before you to test our spirit. 

" In loving Memory to Bob, The Lion King, 1996"

that was a very wonderful story; i liked the last sentence about not losing hope ----; Bob sounded like a very wonderful, high- spirited person. your story put tears in my eyes. Well- written!