Conclusion of our 1st Rotation

Well, I finally had to leave my patient that I took care of for the last four weeks. Looking back it was a good experience, although it definately had its share of "rough" moments. However, two great things did happen that I want to mention and they actually had very little to do with my job as a nursing student. First I was able to play the piano in the luch room for the residents. Honestly, I was very supprised how many of them actually enjoyed it. In the past, people have listened to me play but they are usually just being polite rather than really enjoying the music. Playing for the residents also helped my get over my nerves of playing infront of people. After all, these were valuable human beings who I should love and I did it by playing as well as I could. Knowing that I shouldn't be nervous about making a mistake because that focus the attention on myself rather on the people listening.

The other instance happened when a very cognitive patient (he is probably more cognitive than I) asked me the question of how I deal with having a patient die. Of course, I told him that I couldn't really say since I have not experienced that, thank goodness. But I went on to talk about my faith and just how that would really be the only thing I could completly depend on if such a situation were to occur. This moment was important to me because it is really the first time I have ever gotten to share what I believe with patients. To often I envision such an experience happening in a very sales-pitchy, shallow kind of way, but this instance looked and sounded sincere. It helped show me one way my faith can realistically and sincerely be applied in nursing.