crispychoc

Maybe we should land all planes in the Hudson from now on.

Get the surgeon to sign your chest/piece of paper, and write 1092, so you can ink it later! 1092 in his handwriting would be cool.

All day long apparently.

As someone that spend most of my childhood in hospital for several reasons, and just barely making it, there are a few things that make the difference, all of them small.

• I loved personal attention to detail, try and remember personal things the patient tells you, be it the name of their dog, or their best friend, or just what their favorite food is. It helps connect on a personal level with your patient.

• On long term care, learn their habits, hobbies and everything else.

• listen

I'm now in nursing, and I apply this with all my patients, I ask questions about their life outside of the hospital, not just how they're feeling today. When I have some spare time, even if it's a minute or two, I sit down and talk, again, it's about establishing a human connection, not just "another patient".

I've had great feedback from patients, most of them mention me by first name in their "satisfaction survey", which has come to the attention of my bosses.

It's hard to explain, but I'll give you an simple example which has stuck with me over 30+ years.

I was fed through IV for months, I was going to spend my 7th birthday in hospital. I was making pretend food with lego (I still have the pictures!), which got the doctor talking about what I liked foodwise. By the time my birthday came around, my condition had improved enough to start eating solids again. He got the hospital cook to make me pancakes for my birthday, you cannot imagine how fucking thrilled I was having pancakes. I think that birthday is the most memorable of all my childhood.

From a professional point of view, 30+ years later I had a patient that had been on bed rest for 2 months, and was finally allowed in a wheelchair. Since she didn't get a lot of visits, and was too feeble to push her own chair, she spend most of the time in her room. I took her outside on my break, bought her a coffee from the vending machine, and sat in the sun for 10 minutes with her.

5 years later she came back for something else, and I saw her again, she told me that she was really grateful for those 10 minutes, and the fact she got to go outside, she remembered that day.

So yeah, it's the little things that make the difference, I try and "connect" with my patients on a personal level, without overstepping any boundaries. (Not always easy!)

Hi, thanks for doing this AMA! As someone who has done a lot of work with the homeless in the past though religious and non religious organisations, and having meaningful in depth conversations with pastors and priests and other religious leaders, I'm always astounded that a lot of religious people don't actually follow the basic teachings of Christ. (help/love thy neighbour etc..) And even those that walk past the homeless on their way to church. Also those that condemn others for not being of the right religion, have the "wrong" sexual preference, or anything else that doesn't line up with their personal train of thought. Isn't it up to God to judge people?

Personally I don't affiliate myself with a religion, nor do I believe in God, but I do have personal core values that line up with the teachings of the bible/torah/koran in general. (I've read part of all, most of the bible)

Don't you think it's a bit hypocritical of those that go to church once or twice a year, but then for the rest of the year spend their time being egocentric and not doing anything meaningful to help their fellow human?

I find a lot of the basic teachings of different religious denominations inspiring, and those conversations I've had have changed me into a better human being, just not a religious one.

Thanks for doing this AMA, inspire to do/be good, in whomever's name it is!