During our short time at clinical, I feel as though I did make a difference in the patient’s care even though us student nurses could not do as much with the patients as we would have liked to. One day during my clinical rotation I was taking vital signs for one of the CNA’s and I went into a patient’s room and he was on the phone, talking to who I would soon learn was his mother. He hung up the phone once he saw me walk in and broke out in tears almost immediately after he put down the phone. It caught me off guard because I was not expecting that to happen, but I quickly composed myself and asked him what was wrong. He told me that his mother’s cancer has returned. He was very distraught, but I made sure to actively listen to him. It was easy for me to understand and relate to him and his problem, because I have a similar situation with both my parents as well. I understood how he was feeling at the moment and I felt like I had a good conversation with him. He told me how scared he was because his mother is his best friend. He also said how he wanted her to do whatever treatment that the doctor was recommending, so she could become healthy again. It was saddening to see because I know a lot of the patients in New England Rehab are in the hospital for a while, and do not get a lot of visitors due to COVID, so they can become lonely and just want someone to talk to. At that moment, he really just needed someone to talk to and listen to him. I’m glad that I was able to be that person for him. I made a small difference in his life at that moment, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Even though we were not allowed to do a lot since this was our first clinical experience, I know for a fact that all of us made a difference in all of the patients lives that we came into contact with. We were always there to listen to them and just give them someone to talk to.
