A Patient's Newsletter Leads to Nurses' Understanding

Abstract

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Lillian needed our help. Four months pregnant, with lobar pneumonia and a temperature of 1030 F., she walked out of the hospital and took a cab home on her third day of hospitalization. The married brother with whom she lived had her back in the hospital within an hour. But how to keep her there? Please have your students take care of Lillian; we don't want her to desert again, the head nurse asked. I pondered over assignments for a group of sophomore students in the basic collegiate program. Yes, Lillian would be a good patient for Miss Green. Wasn't it just yesterday this student was asking for more experience in giving Alevaire inhalations? But Miss Green's greatest challenge came in meeting Lillian's emotional needs. The young student wasn't too sure that her own feelings about a 16-year-old, unmarried, pregnant, high-school girl wouldn't come through to Lillian as disapproval, and communication between them could then become difficult. Yet Miss Green realized that the interaction she could establish with Lillian would be more important to the patient's basic problem (her pregnancy and its surrounding circumstances) than the procedures ordered for her pneumonia. The cue to communication came the very first morning. As Miss Green was giving her morning care, Lillian remarked that she was eager to get back to school. She liked working on the school paper. The cue was picked up quickly. Why not be the news reporter for the ward, Lillian? Miss Green asked. Lillian looked startled. She hesitated, then exclaimed, Whv yes, I could write a 'who's who column.' She beamed. Paper and pencil were procured, and the first issue of Who's Who on Pavillion 5 was launched. Lillian reveled in the attention the three issues brought her.