The Answer

I asked in my previous post, "What would [a student nurse] do if they were assigned to a pt with [every tube and intervention ever invented in the ICU]?"

I think I have the answer.

The student would be intimidated by all of the equipment....spider web-like entanglements of various IV, TPN, and lipid tubing surrounding the bed. Her heart would jump every time the ventilator's high pressure alarm would sound, wondering if this was it - the end. And, she would be half afraid to even touch the patient for fear of disconnecting some tube and disturbing his "lifeline" finally pushing this poor soul over the edge: from death's doorstep propelling him into it.

Then, slowly, this same student nurse would timidly execute one order after another, successfully without any catastrophes ensuing. She would suction his trach successfully, though tense and shaking slightly. She would check the placement of his J-G-tube and hang his TPN, without incident. And, all the while she would look ever so curiously into this patient's eyes. Was there a clue hidden there?

As the initial intimidation and nervousness wore off and the student nurse grew accustomed to the occasional occluded tubing that needed un-kinked...and she became increasingly comfortable with the new, previously unfamiliar clinical tasks that were required of her....then, after all of that.... the student nurse would be able to look beyond the equipment and see the person.

The person; not the patient. The person who got dressed for church on Sunday, unsuspecting and without warning of what was to come ... The person who fell to the floor of his church clutching his chest, on the verge of death, in V-Tach. The person, now dependent on machinery for his very breath and helpless, in need of human connection and human touch.

The student nurse would speak softly to the man...at first he would continue to block out her voice along with the world....the world that was now so cruel and painful. But she would continue to babble on about this or that, knowing that while his body was failing him, his mind and cognition weren't. And, then, one of the things the student nurse said to him would touch him and he would opened his eyes and look the student nurse right in the eyes and give a weak, endearing smile. The smile, then, truly would warm the student nurse's frightened, timid heart.

She would then be able to move beyond hanging the proper IVs and interpreting the ekg rhythm strips correctly and she would be richly rewarded for it.

She truly connected to another human on this planet who was in need of a personal connection at that moment.

She then would leave, after 2 days of caring for this dear man, with both happiness and sadness in her heart for him. She will diligently look in the obituaries - not knowing what she is hoping for more: to not see his name or to see his handsome picture knowing he is finally at peace.

That is what a student nurse would do.