I am very fearful of needles and was told I have to have a PICC line placed. He made a big difference.
I usually stare at a spot on the ceiling. He told me to look at his eyes and breathe in and out with him while he was doing the PICC line. This made a huge difference! He helped me to be positive and lowered my stress about the needle. People like him are obviously motivated internally by wanting to help people.
I am not an easy patient; in fact, I would call myself a lousy patient. This nurse really did a good job. There is fine line between professionalism and empathy. If he was one of my employees I would be recognizing him for the difference in makes with his patients.
One of the things that this nurse did that helped on my PICC line bandage was that he drew two faces. He said one was his smiling face and the other was mine. He said, "this is me smiling at you" and he wanted to see a smile on my face every day!