Lippincott NursingCenter.com is partnering with Lippincott Solutions to bring you an inspired nurse’s story every month. Here is the November 2018 inspired nurse story, A Helping Hand.
 
A Helping Hand
Deb Velez
VA San Diego Healthcare System
Prevention of Amputation in Veteran's Everywhere (PAVE)
 
I have been a practicing nurse for more than 40 years and have had many inspirational encounters with many patients, but working at the VA and serving our returning Veterans has been the most inspirational.

One morning at the VA, a young prosthetics intern and former army staff sergeant got out of his car before being approached by a woman who had noticed the Purple Heart license plate on his car. “Are you driving your dad’s car?” she asked.  “No, it’s mine,” he replied.  “Well at least you came back with all your parts!” But what she hadn’t seen was his prosthetic arm, and it was then that I knew we would be seeing a whole new generation of combat Veterans. He was only 25 and had lost part of his right arm in an ambush in Iraq in attempts to ambush insurgents firing off mortars.

This particular story inspired me to write an article that was then published in NURSING 2011 — “Provide a helping hand to patients with upper extremity prostheses” (Velez & Dellefield, 2011).  While it had been a goal of mine to get something published before I left nursing, this story, one of the many I have encountered at the VA, touched me. I know that I will be retiring soon, but I also know that I will always have my nursing life experiences with me and have been inspired everyday by those who GAVE ALL.

Reference: (Velez, D.J., Dellefield, M.E. (2011). Provide a helping hand to patients with upper extremity prostheses. Nursing2011, 41(1). doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000391403.05698.fa