When Shannon started with us she brought something special with her, and that was her compassion for the human soul. I see Shannon do amazing things every day that I work with her; frankly I don't expect anything less than amazing from her. Yesterday she showed us all the epitome of the nursing spirit.
Shannon had a difficult patient that was essentially homeless. He was elderly, he distrusted the staff, and his views on modern medicine were that it's all just a hoax. All nurses are familiar with how terrible C diff is; this patient was working on his 5th month of active infection and was not very happy about it. His family was distant in the sense that they had been pushed away by his behavior, and he had been fired from every care center in his local area. This patient was not happy with the state of his life and how things had turned out for him and he frequently stated he had nothing to live for.
On this particular day, the patient said he had had enough. He put on his clothes and was attempting to walk out. Never mind the fact that he had nowhere to go, no money and no food; he had been deemed competent and had the freedom to exercise his rights. In the past we had been able to call his family to come in and speak with him which would settle things down a bit but at this very moment no one was able to come in. They were also unable to take him in because they had no way to care for him. His family did attempt to call his phone but the patient would hang up abruptly with no interest in talking to them.
The patient was in a wheelchair slowing moving himself down the hallway towards the door when something wonderful happened. Shannon stopped in front of him, knelt down and began crying. Struggling to speak through her tears, she said, "We want to take care of you, sir. You have nowhere to go and you could die if you leave." While she continued talking to him, he looked around with an expression of regret for having made his nurse so concerned that she was crying and begging him to stay. He pondered this situation for a few moments and then returned to his room. Shannon gowned up and went in to speak with him about his intentions. I was outside the room but I heard the patient tell her, "At the moment when you got on your knees and cried, I knew you cared about me and I had to stay."
The patient did stay to finish his treatment and received a safe discharge to a SNF. I have never witnessed anyone put so much compassion and love towards a patient. Shannon was able to help this patient see how sick he really was and how much we in the Mercy community really do care.