Sue Hodges
February 2019
Sue
Hodges
,
RN
Rehabilitation Unit
Beaumont Farmington Hills
Farmington Hills
,
MI
United States

 

 

 

Sometimes it's the "little things" that become the BIG things. On the In-patient rehab floor having your own clean clothes to dress into every morning may seem like a little thing, unless you don't have any. The rehab nursing staff is usually aware of the dynamics behind a patient not having any of their own clothes and we do what we can to help accommodate by offering scrub pants or borrowing clothes from the Occupational Therapy clothes. It takes a compassionate and special nurse to think about this patient after they leave the hospital and actually go purchase him his own clothes. That is exactly what one of our nurses recently did for one of her patients. I found out about this one morning when I was assisting them with their ADLs. I pulled out some brand new shirts and pants that had the tags on them. I said "hey, wow! Look at what you got!" They started beaming from ear to ear and told me that one of the nurses bought them for them. When I asked them who it was, they could not tell me her name only that she wore blue, had blonde hair and wore a ponytail. I immediately knew it was Sue Hodges. As I told them how sweet I thought that was of her; they were smiling the whole time and continued to tell me how nice and kind it was. They could not believe they were treated so well. This demonstrated to me a very tangible way a little thing can become a big thing to a patient. We become family while they are with us. We may all feel this way about our patients at times but Sue went a BIG step further and acted on it. They may not remember her name even today but I trust they will always remember the RN who wore blue and had a ponytail because she showed compassion and made a connection with them through this small act of love.