Holocaust Patient

Last week I had the experience of working with a patient who left Germany as a teen ager and returned four years later (in 1932) with the Army.  I was feeling very tired and really wanted to just take a nap, but when I got back to the unit I got my patient up for a late lunch (he was napping).  I straightened the room and noticed a book with a German title and asked if he spoke German and when he left Germany.  I asked him if he had ever returned and he said that he had but that it was always hard for him.

As we talked more he became more solemn and said "You know we are part of the animal world but we are the only animals that kill our own kind."  I noticed a shift in the conversation and got down on his level and I listened to his story for I don't know how long.  I will not share the details of our conversation, but there was intense sharing of pain and opening up on his part and a lot of being present and listening on my part.  There were points were I noticed my habit energies wanting to interject, but I was able to stay in the moment with his experience and I believe that we both benefited from this mindfulness.

He shared a lot of pain.  Pain that I think really needed the outlet that our conversation afforded.  It would have been all too easy to move on or not get down to his level physically, but I believe that having the luxury of time as a student I was able to offer a therapeutic outlet as well as learn a lot myself.  After our conversation I took an afternoon break and when I returned I felt such a desire to give him the best few hours that I could.  I don't think that I did anything differently, but I felt different.  It was a special interaction which I will not forget.

Another reason to remember this man was that I started my first IV on this patient at the end of the shift.  Starting an IV feels so "nurse like" in the ways that I viewed nursing a year ago as I started my program.  Connecting with a patient as a fellow person and providing a therapeutic outlet for their pain feels so "nurse like" in a different and equally or perhaps more valuable way.