bed baths and adult diapers

Today was my second day taking care of a patient as a nursing student in the hospital. Today was the first day I had my own patient. Well, I was assigned to work with his real nurse, but I wasn't paired with a classmate. It was the first day I actually felt somewhat like a nurse. No, I'm not as efficient as his real nurse and I don't know how to do everything, but my patient was in stable condition so I felt like I was in control. I also helped a classmate of mine with her patient who was not as stable as mine.

I think today I really gained an appreciation for how some patients must feel so violated. They have to be willing to let us bathe them, put on their diapers, and clean out their anal abcesses. Sometimes they're so out of it that they don't notice, but the patients I worked with today were fully alert. I think it's one of the things that draws me to nursing- seeing people at their most vulnerable and meeting them where they're at, helping to meet their basic needs.