On Easter morning I was transported by ambulance to NVRH Emergency Room with a serious advanced case of pneumonia. I am an 84-year-old woman, and I'd never been admitted into a hospital (can you believe it!) in all those years except for one time when on July 4th (at the age of 12) I had an emergency appendectomy!
The admitting ER Doctor's notes this time around recorded: "Elderly woman with pneumonia - a severe threat to life and function." I was admitted into care on the second floor unit at NVRH, and there I met my nurse who took care of me while I was in the hospital (five days).
I was scared, but he was a constant calming presence despite the fact that the unit was at max capacity. I had many questions and he answered them all (sometimes having to repeat the answer again). If he didn't know the answer he said, "I'll find out." Sometimes (I'll admit it, I argued, I resisted, I questioned), in other words, you could say I was a difficult patient! But, he never lost patience, never treated me with anything but respect, and always maintained a high level of professionalism!
Lastly, and most importantly he listened! Do you know how rare that is these days? Under a stressful overload of patients at that time, he never cut our nurse-patient relationship short! I know how lucky I was, and I continue to be grateful for his care!