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>> With this particular job, you know, they want to say textbook, but sometimes things don't work
in that particular way, so you have to always expect the unexpected and be ready.
That's what I love about my job too, that I do.
This is the life of a nurse, we always have to be thinking one step ahead.
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>> We meet people from all walks of life, you know, people with all different kinds of issues
and different kinds of backgrounds and they all kind of, culminate here and we have
to help bring them along through this very difficult time, you know.
When you have heart surgery or any other major surgery in the ICU, it's very difficult,
difficult time to handle emotionally, physically, so what I like is just kind
of being able to help people through that.
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>> The first time I met John was probably a few months ago when he was first diagnosed.
And I had taken care of him I think when he was first going to be starting treatment.
When a family receives the initial diagnosis, it can be really tough and a lot
of times there's not really much you can say.
A lot of times it's best just to kind of let them be with their family and talk
with each other and grieve with each other and it's always good for the nurse
to be there and to offer comfort.
I mean, I'm doing pretty well with it so far and I know that there's been nurses on here,
on the floor that have been here for like, 20 or so years and I don't know how they do it,
but hopefully I can be like them one day.
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>> Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to be a nurse,
so I like coming to my job every day.
I really love what I do.
Knowing that when I'm coming in here that I'm going to take care of someone
and hopefully make a difference in someone's stay, it's what gets me up.
I rarely leave my seat.
I may take a lunch, I may not because this is my responsibility for 12 hours to care for them.
>> The patients that come into this unit have lots of different problems.
You never get bored.
If you think you're learning is done,
then you haven't learned all there is to learn in this unit.
>> So, our patient that we had to travel with needed to go down for a CAT scan.
We had the first 1, but we needed to get another 1 to compare it for the 2
because we don't have good neuro functions on her.
And when they're on ECMO, it takes a whole crew of everybody to work together to get them
down there, so we have to make sure we have our ECMO specialist with us,
our fellow respiratory therapy and then the 2 nurses and maybe even a tech to go along.
>> I came to work at University of Michigan after being a patent
of Dr. Bobay's [assumed spelling].
I had a congenital heart defect that wasn't diagnosed until after I had my kids
and so I came here and was up on PC2 as an adult and had a nurse who very much took care of me.
I really realized that what nursing was wasn't, it is drips and it is skills
and it is all the things that we do, but it isn't really that our families remember,
it's hearing who they are, knowing what they need
and I think that's probably my favorite part of working with pediatrics
because there's a lot of opportunity for that.
>> One thing I do, especially in a bigger facility like this,
it's definitely a large volume of patients and one thing I will do, is I'll try to get
to know patients a little more and it humanizes them a little bit.
That kind of helps me to put in perspective that each person that comes
through here has a different story, is unique.
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>> When I was in High School, I actually had a different career path that I was going
to go down, I was going to do occupational therapy or sports medicine
and my mom actually was rushed to the ER for a brain aneurism and was flown to U
of M. How the nurses interacted with her and interacted with her family, really touched me
and made me want to change my career path and become a nurse.
And that's kind of what stuck with me.
It made me realize, you know, this is what I want to do.
I want to make that impact on somebody else.
>> When we used to do pediatrics over here, there was a case that really, you know,
we had a patient that was burnt 100% of her body and we knew that she wasn't going to live
for very long, but to hold her hand, hold her hand and you know,
make sure that she's not going to die alone.
You might see somebody's last moments on earth here and hopefully we can make a difference.
Sorry.
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