Reflections on Women’s Health
Title BYLINE
A View From the Bed
W
We learn so many things in nursing school and through our varied work experiences, but did you ever think you could learn so much more by being a patient? I believe and know you can. Being a patient changed my life forever. I went to work on a Friday after a very long week with no warning that I wouldn’t be home that night or for several nights to follow. At the end of a long day, a nursing colleague and friend told me my left eye “didn’t look right.” It was bulging out of the socket. I immediately went to a mirror and saw what she saw. I decided to go home with a plan to call my primary physician on Monday. After all, I had no pain, no pressure and no real symptoms. On my way out I stopped in Pediatrics and the APN there said the same about my left eye and hand delivered me to the emergency department physician who
JENNIFER B. BRADLE, MSN, APRN-CNS
was on that night. The expression on his face told me I wasn’t going home. A STAT CT scan revealed an abnormal growth in my head, exact location to be determined with more tests. I was admitted with neurosurgical and oncologic consults ordered for the morning, as well as a battery of more tests and scans. Results were positive for a lesion on the base of my skull on the sphenoid bone and orbital bone. The mass was so large, it was pushing my eye out of the socket and threatening my optic nerve. I needed to see a specialist quickly and to have surgery or else I would lose the sight in my left eye. On Monday morning, my case manager arrived and through her perseverance with insurance companies and physicians, she navigated our journey so that the road was not so hard
continued on p. 547
548
© 2013, AWHONN
http://nwh.awhonn.org
continued from p. 548
Reflections
over my left eye. Walking was challenging. During my 3-day stay in the neurology intensive care unit, I was hooked up to tubes, drains and monitors I had only read about in school. Intravenous opioids were an experience, and as an opiate-naive patient I can tell you it’s not fun. Fall risk, sensory deprivation and other nursing diagnoses were on my plan of care, I’m sure. I met the outcomes planned for me and was dis-
of the way is incredible. It’s real and when the team caring for you acknowledges those fears you start to heal
to travel. She found me a neurosurgeon in New York City and set up all appointments. I now know how hard case managers work! I left my community hospital, where they took wonderful care of me, to follow a new road of unfamiliar territory. My husband became my advocate, asking the questions I could not. Patients need their family members. We need to know that as nurses, and we need to know how to include and educate them so that the outcome is positive. The nurses did this for me. The neurosurgeon at one of the top hospitals in New York made us feel very special. He reassured us that my case, even though so unusual to us, was very common to him. We met his team but he wanted a special eye surgeon to assist my case. So we met him and his team and surgery was scheduled. More tests and scans were performed. I learned that the fear patients have with each step of the way is incredible. It’s real and when the team caring for you acknowledges those fears you start to heal. The diagnosis after my surgery was a grade I meningioma—benign. No further treatment was needed. But I had a way to go on my recovery. A craniotomy had left me with 42 staples down the left side of my head and an incision
December 2013 | January 2014
charged on day 5 with a 90-minute ride home and a 12-week recovery ahead of me. The care I received from nurses and physicians during my hospital stay was outstanding, and the hospital provided an environment very conducive to healing—one that at times felt more like a hotel than a hospital, with everything from delicious meals that I could order room-service style, to trips up to the balcony to see the view or to a lounge room where I could play the piano, to housekeepers who cleaned my room twice a day but took care not to disturb me (they even fluffed my pillows for me). Throughout my hospital stay and once I got home, my family was crucial to my recovery. I had to be supervised all day and night so that I wouldn’t fall. My daughter helped me with showers. The seemingly smallest activities of daily life became my milestones, none of which I will take for granted again. Our friends brought us wonderful meals, which really contributed to healing. We are forever grateful for their culinary expertise. I healed. I have my sight and now I have a view of nursing from the bed. The things I learned from my patient experience will add to my skills, and I plan to share them with my students, colleagues and administrators. As those of us who work in health care struggle today with regulations and quality indicators and how important the patient experience really is to the bottom line, I can honestly tell you the patient experience is not only important, but also is truly the key to healing. NWH
on Women’s Health
The fear patients have with each step
Jennifer B. Bradle, MSN, APRN-CNS, is a perinatal clinical nurse specialist at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, NJ. The author reports no conflicts of interest or relevant financial relationships. Address correspondence to: jbbradle@meridianhealth. com. DOI: 10.1111/1751-486X.12086
Nursing for Women’s Health
547
Title BYLINE
A View From the Bed
W
We learn so many things in nursing school and through our varied work experiences, but did you ever think you could learn so much more by being a patient? I believe and know you can. Being a patient changed my life forever. I went to work on a Friday after a very long week with no warning that I wouldn’t be home that night or for several nights to follow. At the end of a long day, a nursing colleague and friend told me my left eye “didn’t look right.” It was bulging out of the socket. I immediately went to a mirror and saw what she saw. I decided to go home with a plan to call my primary physician on Monday. After all, I had no pain, no pressure and no real symptoms. On my way out I stopped in Pediatrics and the APN there said the same about my left eye and hand delivered me to the emergency department physician who
JENNIFER B. BRADLE, MSN, APRN-CNS
was on that night. The expression on his face told me I wasn’t going home. A STAT CT scan revealed an abnormal growth in my head, exact location to be determined with more tests. I was admitted with neurosurgical and oncologic consults ordered for the morning, as well as a battery of more tests and scans. Results were positive for a lesion on the base of my skull on the sphenoid bone and orbital bone. The mass was so large, it was pushing my eye out of the socket and threatening my optic nerve. I needed to see a specialist quickly and to have surgery or else I would lose the sight in my left eye. On Monday morning, my case manager arrived and through her perseverance with insurance companies and physicians, she navigated our journey so that the road was not so hard
continued on p. 547
548
© 2013, AWHONN
http://nwh.awhonn.org
continued from p. 548
Reflections
over my left eye. Walking was challenging. During my 3-day stay in the neurology intensive care unit, I was hooked up to tubes, drains and monitors I had only read about in school. Intravenous opioids were an experience, and as an opiate-naive patient I can tell you it’s not fun. Fall risk, sensory deprivation and other nursing diagnoses were on my plan of care, I’m sure. I met the outcomes planned for me and was dis-
of the way is incredible. It’s real and when the team caring for you acknowledges those fears you start to heal
to travel. She found me a neurosurgeon in New York City and set up all appointments. I now know how hard case managers work! I left my community hospital, where they took wonderful care of me, to follow a new road of unfamiliar territory. My husband became my advocate, asking the questions I could not. Patients need their family members. We need to know that as nurses, and we need to know how to include and educate them so that the outcome is positive. The nurses did this for me. The neurosurgeon at one of the top hospitals in New York made us feel very special. He reassured us that my case, even though so unusual to us, was very common to him. We met his team but he wanted a special eye surgeon to assist my case. So we met him and his team and surgery was scheduled. More tests and scans were performed. I learned that the fear patients have with each step of the way is incredible. It’s real and when the team caring for you acknowledges those fears you start to heal. The diagnosis after my surgery was a grade I meningioma—benign. No further treatment was needed. But I had a way to go on my recovery. A craniotomy had left me with 42 staples down the left side of my head and an incision
December 2013 | January 2014
charged on day 5 with a 90-minute ride home and a 12-week recovery ahead of me. The care I received from nurses and physicians during my hospital stay was outstanding, and the hospital provided an environment very conducive to healing—one that at times felt more like a hotel than a hospital, with everything from delicious meals that I could order room-service style, to trips up to the balcony to see the view or to a lounge room where I could play the piano, to housekeepers who cleaned my room twice a day but took care not to disturb me (they even fluffed my pillows for me). Throughout my hospital stay and once I got home, my family was crucial to my recovery. I had to be supervised all day and night so that I wouldn’t fall. My daughter helped me with showers. The seemingly smallest activities of daily life became my milestones, none of which I will take for granted again. Our friends brought us wonderful meals, which really contributed to healing. We are forever grateful for their culinary expertise. I healed. I have my sight and now I have a view of nursing from the bed. The things I learned from my patient experience will add to my skills, and I plan to share them with my students, colleagues and administrators. As those of us who work in health care struggle today with regulations and quality indicators and how important the patient experience really is to the bottom line, I can honestly tell you the patient experience is not only important, but also is truly the key to healing. NWH
on Women’s Health
The fear patients have with each step
Jennifer B. Bradle, MSN, APRN-CNS, is a perinatal clinical nurse specialist at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, NJ. The author reports no conflicts of interest or relevant financial relationships. Address correspondence to: jbbradle@meridianhealth. com. DOI: 10.1111/1751-486X.12086
Nursing for Women’s Health
547
