N
nurseiw
Guest
Dear Cathoiic friends,
I am a non-Catholic, but Christian nursing student. i have a patient at my clinical rotation who is in terrible pain. She is paralyzed in 3 extremities, she can’t speak, she can’t have anything by mouth-all food and medication is given through a peg tube to the stomach. She is being treated horribly and her family has tossed her aside and only visits about every 6-8 months. Although she doesn’t speak she moans, groans and cries. The facility is bad. I am limited on what I can do as a student. I provide all the care I can to her, but her main nurse will almost never give her the pain medication she needs. The doctor has prescribed it as PRN, which means, as needed. When I tell the nurse what is going on with my patient and that she is in pain her response is, “oh, she’s always like that”. They have put her at the end of the hall and they just ignore her. The first day that she was assigned to me as my patient, I did all I could to help her, but she was in so much distress. i read in her chart that she is a life-long devoted Catholic, and there is a rosary hanging above her bed. So, I took her only good hand and held it, and I prayed the Lord’s prayer because I know that prayer is part of the rosary. It calmed her SO much. She started breathing easier and she stopped clawing at her face. She relaxed a lot, etc. After that experience, I came to this forum to ask if it was okay for me as a non-Catholic to pray the rosary with her and to be her “voice” so to speak. I received a lot of helpful information from the members here, so I have come to ask more questions. I have tried very hard to get permission for a priest to visit but have hit a lot of walls, even being threatened by the director of nursing. But i am still working on it. I have filed a report with the state about the deplorable care, but that rarely gets results. So, in the meantime, myself and two other students have taken this poor woman on as a special project. Every time i am at the facility I go to her room and do all I can for her and I pray the Hail Mary prayer and the Our Father prayer. I want to do more. One of the students who has agreed to help me this week speaks Spanish. My patients first language is Spanish. I know that Saints are important to Catholics and I know that different Saints help for different problems. So I was wondering if you could tell me which Saints we should pray to and if you could give us some prayers to say. ANYTHING to bring comfort to this poor woman. My fellow student said that the language of the prayers woule be unfamiliar to her and difficult to translate, but if someone could give us the prayers in either Latin or Spanish she could read them. Also, I sing Amazing Grace to her, and she likes it, but are there some other hymns that are special to Catholics? Do you have any other suggestions that we might do to attend to her spiritual needs and give her comfort and hope? She has nothing of her own, as no one seems to care about her, so I was thinking that I would bring her a pretty blanket for her bed and I wanted to find a beautiful cross or crucifix to hang within her view. Do you think that is a good idea, or do you have a better idea? I would be grateful for ANY feedback. Every time I see her I want to cry. I will do all the independent nursing actions that I am permitted to do as a student, but I desperately want to help her know that someone cares about her soul too. Please help me to help her.
I am a non-Catholic, but Christian nursing student. i have a patient at my clinical rotation who is in terrible pain. She is paralyzed in 3 extremities, she can’t speak, she can’t have anything by mouth-all food and medication is given through a peg tube to the stomach. She is being treated horribly and her family has tossed her aside and only visits about every 6-8 months. Although she doesn’t speak she moans, groans and cries. The facility is bad. I am limited on what I can do as a student. I provide all the care I can to her, but her main nurse will almost never give her the pain medication she needs. The doctor has prescribed it as PRN, which means, as needed. When I tell the nurse what is going on with my patient and that she is in pain her response is, “oh, she’s always like that”. They have put her at the end of the hall and they just ignore her. The first day that she was assigned to me as my patient, I did all I could to help her, but she was in so much distress. i read in her chart that she is a life-long devoted Catholic, and there is a rosary hanging above her bed. So, I took her only good hand and held it, and I prayed the Lord’s prayer because I know that prayer is part of the rosary. It calmed her SO much. She started breathing easier and she stopped clawing at her face. She relaxed a lot, etc. After that experience, I came to this forum to ask if it was okay for me as a non-Catholic to pray the rosary with her and to be her “voice” so to speak. I received a lot of helpful information from the members here, so I have come to ask more questions. I have tried very hard to get permission for a priest to visit but have hit a lot of walls, even being threatened by the director of nursing. But i am still working on it. I have filed a report with the state about the deplorable care, but that rarely gets results. So, in the meantime, myself and two other students have taken this poor woman on as a special project. Every time i am at the facility I go to her room and do all I can for her and I pray the Hail Mary prayer and the Our Father prayer. I want to do more. One of the students who has agreed to help me this week speaks Spanish. My patients first language is Spanish. I know that Saints are important to Catholics and I know that different Saints help for different problems. So I was wondering if you could tell me which Saints we should pray to and if you could give us some prayers to say. ANYTHING to bring comfort to this poor woman. My fellow student said that the language of the prayers woule be unfamiliar to her and difficult to translate, but if someone could give us the prayers in either Latin or Spanish she could read them. Also, I sing Amazing Grace to her, and she likes it, but are there some other hymns that are special to Catholics? Do you have any other suggestions that we might do to attend to her spiritual needs and give her comfort and hope? She has nothing of her own, as no one seems to care about her, so I was thinking that I would bring her a pretty blanket for her bed and I wanted to find a beautiful cross or crucifix to hang within her view. Do you think that is a good idea, or do you have a better idea? I would be grateful for ANY feedback. Every time I see her I want to cry. I will do all the independent nursing actions that I am permitted to do as a student, but I desperately want to help her know that someone cares about her soul too. Please help me to help her.