Hasija Sisic
February 2014
Hasija
Sisic
,
RN
Opiate Treatment Outpatient Program
San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco
,
CA
United States

 

 

 

A Poem for Hasija:

To pick one story of going above and beyond
Would not be possible for so many I found
Our clinic serves hundreds, she knows all by name,
For some she's the reason to OTOP (Opiate Treatment Outpatient Program)they came.

Our clients have issues, a challenge to address,
Homelessness, addiction, some are a mess.
They are people like us, but with much tougher issues,
All kinds of problems led them to misuse.

But we have an angel, whose smile's always shining,
Nothing seems to bother her, not even the whining.
Every client she meets, she treats with such kindness,
she listens, she hears, no judging, open-minded.

She is totally fearless, not scared by psychosis,
Not the DEA, JCAHO or even halitosis
Borderline? No problem, just feed them sweets,
There isn't a challenge that she can't meet.

As a city employee she is very keen,
It happened last week, she found a code green.
Compassion fatigue, there's no need to worry,
She's so darn happy, like the energizer bunny.

For those who know her you'll know I'm not crazy
To nominate Hasija for a nursing DAISY.


Right before Christmas, Hasija told her story to a bright young man who was suffering with unrelenting substance use. The patient was feeling hopeless about his ability to change. He had been in treatment recently but had 'used' the day he left the residential program. It felt impossible to him to find a way out of his situation. The man's mother had called the unit several times because she was worried about her son and expressed hope that her son would call her for the holidays. The patient did not want to let his family down again and said that maybe he would try again next year to get straightened out. Hasija carefully listened to him and expressed compassion for his struggle.

Hasija told him a story about her life and her own hopelessness. Hasija related that when she was in the war in Bosnia as a nurse, she was sure she was going to be killed like many of the others around her. She was hopeless about prospects for getting out. She got in an ambulance with a few others and they just drove. They didn't know where they were going but they just went and headed into the mountains. There was a long path up a hill that led them away from the killing and the destruction and up that hill there was hope for her. Now her life is better than she could have imagined at that time.

He had called his mother that night. She and his father helped the man get back into a treatment program and took him home for the holidays. The man came onto the unit today. I wish I could show the before and after picture because the man is vibrant, happy and hopeful, not the beaten hopeless bedraggled soul he had been a short month before. He told Hasija that the story she told him gave him hope and the incentive to "get on that road" to see where it led.

There are hundreds of other stories just like this one. Hasija touches lives every day. She is a nurse in every fiber of her being and a compassionate and lovely human being.