As healthcare professionals I know we have all had many memorable moments, moments that define our life as a nurse and those that help define life period, let us share some of our most memorable moments, re-living those special moments makes us feel good again and again.

My most memorable moment was caring for a young women in her early 30's. She was pregnant with her first child and was mis-diagnosed. She was told she had fibroids that were causing her bleeding during the pregnancy, instead it was stage 4 ovarian cancer. I began her care in her 6th month of pregnancy because the doctor used a low dose chemo. After her daughter was born I continued to care for her with chemotherapy and blood transfusions. I got to know the family well. She of course was having a difficult time coping with the fact she was going to die and miss all of her daughter's "firsts". I talked to her about making videos of herself talking to her daughter in all conceivable situations, at first she did not want to do this, but thankfully she decided to go forward. She began making tape after tape while her daughter slept. I helped her by holding the camera and coaxing her along and coming up with new situations to share with her daughter. It kept her focused and made her happy, her husband noticed the difference in her attitude. She started living again even though she was planning for her death. She was able to make almost a years worth of videos before she died, at the end her husband would cry during her tapping so I had to hold the camera, she covered everything we could come up with for her daughter to watch during different phases of her life growing up even her marriage. At her funeral we played a compilation of these tapes in a 15 minute show, there was not a dry eye in the church. I felt I really made a difference for this young mom, but especially with her young daughter. I still get cards from her daughter every year on my birthday she turns 18 this year. She just watched the video made for her graduation. It was difficult to talk her into it at first but I think this should be encouraged for anyone who is leaving a family behind, it still gives me goose bumps and tears when I think about how much I learned about life, while I watched her go through her death. This was a big memorable experience for me.

 The first baby I delivered

My first CPR.  I can still see the whole thing crystal clear 24 years later.

I was working nights on a med surg floor.  It was my first job (LPN) and I'd only been there a couple of months.

We had an agency RN working with us that night.  She walked into a patient room where I was hanging a piggy back antibiotic and wanted to know where the charge nurse was.  She looked upset.  I asked her what was wrong.  "Mr. T*** is dead!" she said.  I was stunned.  "Is he a code," I asked.  "Yes."  "Did you call it?"  "No, he's dead!"  Then she ran out of the room.

I followed her into the conference room where we found our charge nurse.  She asked what was wrong.  "Mr. T*** is dead," the agency RN said.  "Is he a code?"  the charge asked.  "Yes."  "Did you call it?"  "No, he's dead!"

"Call the code" the charge said.  I ran out of the room and grabbed the crash cart.  Our CNA ran into the room to start CPR.  As I pushed the cart down the hall, the agency RN tried to grab it from me and knocked it over.  The defibrillator crashed to the floor and shattered.   I had to run up a flight of stairs to borrow a defibrillator.  By the time I got back to the room, the code team was there.  The patient was in the fetal position, and his body rocked back and forth as the CNA did compressions, and actually creaked.  The ICU nurses were pissed about being called to run a code on a dead man, but the doc was more conciliatory.  "They had to call it," he said.

Turns out, the agency RN hung a unit of PRBC's at midnight, and didn't get back to the room until 4am to hang the 2nd unit and that's when she found him dead.

The 1st death at my 1st job as a nurse. One of my favorite ( I know we are not suppose to have favorites, but bonds do develope) clients ( who was not in my care that night) had just died and I was suctioning and bagging her ( she was on a vent) till the point I bruised my palms because no air would go in her lungs ( they think she died of a granuloma that had been forming for quite some time). I was pretty shook up, when outside and collected myself and when to care for my other patients. One of the patients that I had been caring for was on a vent to breath, in a lot of pain, and had limited use of his limbs looked at me and saw I had been crying and asked if I was okay. I was really touched by that moment because here is someone that I am caring for who is concerned about me. It always reminds me that good and compassion comes in all forms and reminds me everyday why I am a nurse.

Our first clinical rotation, i had to assist in delivering a baby via NSD.First time to witness such in my whole life...