Nursing stories
Butterfly81, you sound as though you are so very empathetic and caring- we need more nurses like you!! I can't believe there were no responses to your post. I am an LPN who has worked in LTC facilities, hospital's, and Physician's offices. One instance that comes to mind is when a family brought thier elderly father in to see the physician- the man was in a wheel chair and seemingly 'out of it', but instead of talking directly to the family members, I spoke to the patient himself, asking him what he was seeing the Dr. for, etc. Although slow to respond, he answered my questions and I finished my assessment. Afterwards, his daughter took me aside and thanked me for speaking directly to her father. She told me that usually the nurses would disregard him totally and speak to the family members, asking them the questions. She was so appreciative that I didn't just judge her father as incompetent and pass him off as unresponsive d/t his wheelchair and appearance.
Another instance involves humor, which I try to use as much as possible to help people feel less nervous. One day a young girl came in for a blood draw with her mother. As I wrapped the tourniquet around the girl's arm, she kept telling her mother that she did not want her blood drawn. Finally, as the needle drew closer to her arm, the young girl kept saying how nervous she was, and that she was terrified, finally I just looked at her and said "how do you think I feel?"- Total silence, nobody said a word and I was able to draw her blood without incident. A week later, I saw the girl's mother and she told me that on thier way home, after I drew the girls blood, they "cracked up laughing" all the way home in the car. She informed me that they both found my statement so outrageously funny that it took away her daughter's fear of being 'poked' with a needle!! Just the thought of the nurse suggesting how 'scared' she was to actually draw somebody's blood had them rolling on the floor for the rest of the night!! Of course I didn't think it was THAT funny, but hey, since it worked for the patient........
So many patients have touched my life, and I can only hope that I, too, have touched theirs. There are so many stories in my seventeen years of being an LPN. Nurses do make a difference, after all, we ARE the patient advocate.
Keep up the good work butterfly, keep the patients and families smiling.

Nursing stories
Having been in nursing 41 yrs I have many humerous stories, however at my age I have trouble remembering them. Not too long ago, in August I had a patient who was blind and demented. She kept yelling to turn on the heat, she was cold. This was during a hot spell of 90-100 degree weather. Telling her that meant nothing to her, so I took her to the patio, as soon as I opened the door she started yelling turn off the heat, turn off the heat. I told her it was the weather it was August, and after that she stopped yelling we need heat on.

On a heavier note, we got a patient in a vegetative state after a CVA. She had an iv only, she came to us to die. I saw something in this woman that made me believe she could come around. I finally talked the family into a tube feeding and trying to save her. She took a few months, but she came out of the vegetative state, was totally oriented, started eating, and lived another 3 yrs, with only R sided paresis to deal with.