Had a sweet little lady on med-surg last night who was sundowning hard. Pulling at her lines, calling for her husband, convinced I was trying to steal her purse. Nothing I said was landing.
Around 2am I was out of ideas and started singing You Are My Sunshine. Badly. Like genuinely off key. She stopped mid sentence, looked at me, and joined in. Knew every single word. We did it three times through and by the end she was holding my hand and telling me I had a lovely voice, which is a lie, but I'll take it.
She slept until 6. Her daughter said it was what she used to sing to her kids.
What's the weirdest thing that ever got through to a patient for you?
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Post replyThe off-key part is important. Nobody trusts a nurse who can actually sing.
Did you put it in the care plan? Day shift needs to know about the sunshine song before 4pm hits.
Love this, genuinely. But I worry stories like this become the expectation. Half the time nothing works and it's not because you didn't find the magic song. Sometimes she just needs a sitter and there isn't one.
Folding washcloths. Retired laundromat owner, absolutely inconsolable until I dumped a stack of clean ones on her tray table. She folded and refolded the same 12 washcloths for two hours and critiqued my technique the whole time.