Mac Lesnick - 4

Not Cut Out for This Job

     Don't worry, I'm not talking about nursing in general, just one specialty! I spent the day in the Seidman Cancer Center. Most of you probably think this would be absolutely devastating hospital, so luckily I was place on a temporary stay floor. The patients who were admitted to this part of the hospital obviously had cancer, but that was not the main reason for their stay. They come in because of various other issues (broken bones, cysts, etc.). However they are still considered critical care patients because they are affected by cancer at the same time. Usually these patients don't stay in the hospital for more than a few days, a week at most. So now that I've explained how this floor is not nearly as bad as the others, let me tell you why I could never work in this hospital.

     For the most part, the day was moving slowly. The nurse and I passed out medications almost the entire morning. Then we had a discharge, which made me sad to see this man go because he was such a sweetheart, but I knew this was a good thing because it meant he was at least somewhat healthy. So here starts my first reason: Usually when patients leave the hospital it's because they are healthy enough to go home or to a rehab. At Seidman, even though their small problems may heal, they still have cancer when they leave. This will almost never go away and will usually cause the patient to have a shorter life than they deserve. I couldn't imagine working somewhere, knowing that no matter how much I help, they will never be completely healed.

     Later in the day, we were assessing an older women who I was told is usually cheerful and very talkative. She was like this a bit in the morning, but as the day went on, the cyst by her kidney was causing more and more pain. This woman was very funny and was making jokes with the nurse that morning. It only took a few hours for her to completely turn 180 degrees. As the nurse and I stood outside her room and charted, we could hear her moaning and having a very difficult time breathing. The nurse was growing frustrated because she had already boosted her pain medication and knew that she couldn't do much else. I could hear her praying that she was ready for whenever the Lord wanted to take her. After this moment, I knew I couldn't handle working in the department. It takes a very strong person to work with cancer patients. Although I have the will to work with sick patients, I couldn't imagine trying to help them and failing more times than succeeding.