Alice Bowdwin
October 2015
Alice
Bowdwin
,
RN
Stepdown Unit
Sentara Princess Anne Hospital
Virginia Beach
,
VA
United States

 

 

 

Alice demonstrated the ultimate compassion for a patient dealing with hair loss from chemotherapy. Each morning the patient would wake up with clumps of her hair on her pillow. The loss of her hair was starting to have an emotional impact on her. Therefore, she wanted her head shaved to avoid seeing the clumps of hair loss each day.

The patient expressed to Alice that she wanted her hair removed and that she did not feel her family was emotionally strong enough to do this. Even though Alice had a full patient assignment, she spent several hours in the room with the patient shaving her head.

The patient stated, "she had limited tools to work with. We used at least 10 of those hospital razors". The patient tearfully explained how Alice laughed and cried with her while she shared stories about her life and her battle with cancer. She stated, "what she did for me meant a lot. Many nurses would not have taken the time to do what she did for me. I felt like I was her only patient!"