It takes a special person

It takes a special person to work in a Palliative care unit. These nurses and doctors take themselves to work everyday knowing the majority of their patients are going to die.

This place my mother is in, is wonderful, you couldn't ask for a better hospital environment, that doesn't seem like a hospital. Her room is huge and comfortably furnished, with enough seating to accommodate larger families, two televisions (one for the family, one for the patient) and there is a kitchen stocked with various snackables, and you can order food prepared by a 5 star chef and have it sent directly to your room. Everyday a music therapist comes and sits by her bed and plays the guitar and sings to her (which always seems to make me cry, because I think the gesture is just so beautiful, my mother has never had that, and she deserves it). I'm so impressed with this place, this setting, and the warm hearted people that reach out to you all day. If you ever HAVE to deal with the inevitable physical decline of a loved one, this particular Palliative care unit is ideal.

I'm impressed with everything but this one respiratory therapist. She was rude as fuck night before last about my mothers CPAP machine, but then tried to excuse her assholism by saying it was hospital policy. Fine. I understand policy, I don't understand your attitude. Tonight she came in while my mother was in the middle of a particularly stressful episode and said "time for a breathing treatment" I said "can you wait until she has had her morphine, because she's stressed right now". "No!" the bitch had the nerve to say to me. I looked her dead off into her eyes and said "she's already agitated, she hates that mask, that would only agitate her worse" now, my words weren't that harsh, but my tone was the tone of somebody ready to put her on her ass if she dared to do it after I'd asked her to wait. She got the point and she left the room, but she never came back, and was supposed to be administering breathing treatments throughout the night. So I had my moms nurse give my mother her breathing treatment when she finally calmed down.

I've been told repeatedly in this unit, if there is something you want, or don't want, just let us know and we will do everything we can to accommodate you and respect your wishes, and so far, everyone except that respiratory therapist has done so (well, she respected my wishes after I made it clear she might just catch a beat down). I told 3 different nurses about her attitude, and said "she doesn't need to be on this floor, she doesn't have the bedside manner for it", plus the fact that she NEVER came back to do my mothers breathing treatment, I asked her to wait, I didn't tell her to just forget about it altogether, well, she is getting wrote up. Apparently quite a few patients have complained about her attitude, and her refusal to cooperate with family wishes, when the people here are already stressed enough.

I said to a nurse yesterday, "this must be a hard job" and she said to me "honey, it can be, but it's fulfilling to me to know that I can make someone else's journey a little easier" and that's a clearly compassionate heart, and if you don't have that, you really shouldn't be in Palliative care.

So, smartass respiratory therapist, this is my big "Fuck you" to you, and a big "Thank you" to all the other wonderful people who share their kindness, their compassion, their smiles when a patient or their family needs it the most. I'm having my girlfriend go tomorrow and pick up a special treat for the nurses here, I feel it's the least I can do for them, just a little something to know they're appreciated. Respiratory therapist wench can't have any though.

With that said, the nurse just came in and told me I should try to get some rest, I think she's right, cuz I'm exhausted. Just thought I'd vent for a minute.