Arecent Facebook post caught my eye-"Heroic Actions by California Nurse Saves Pilot Midflight" (Healy, 2014). The article described how registered nurses Linda Alweiss and Amy Sorenson went into action when a call for medical help went out on a flight from Iowa to Colorado. They quickly started an intravenous, applied a portable defibrillator to use as a cardiac monitor, and stayed with the pilot until the plane landed and an ambulance crew took over. At the time of the post, the pilot was recovering in a cardiac care unit. I was reminded of a friend's similar experience some years ago. When the call went out and she responded, the flight attendant said "It's always the nurses who come when we call for help." My friend took the passenger's blood pressure and, finding it to be high, instructed him take an extra dose of his blood pressure medication. She sat next to him throughout the remainder of the flight, easing his anxiety and averting an emergency landing. By the time they landed he was comfortable and his blood pressure was in the normal range.
These nurses could have remained anonymously in their seats. They could have hoped someone else would respond. They could have considered liability, Nurse Practice and Good Samaritan Acts, lawyers, and lawsuits. Instead, they reacted instinctively with the health and well-being of another person in mind.
In the upper peninsula of Michigan, nurses at Marquette General Hospital were caring for a young woman who was declared brain dead from head injuries. They only knew she was from Iran. With no U.S. Embassy in Iran, the attempt to find relatives was going to take too long for these nurses. The patient was an ideal organ donor, and the nurses were certain that was what she would have wanted. A phone number on her resume helped them connect with the family and deliver the sad news. Knowing how difficult it would be for them to accept her death without being able to say goodbye, the nurses arranged live video chats with the family. With the help of a Farsi interpreter, they were able to say their goodbyes and express the end-of-life care they wanted her to receive. After her death, these nurses were not done. They asked a Muslim physician to wash and shroud her body in the Islamic tradition. They arranged for a local cemetery to designate an area of the cemetery for Muslims. And they made the gift of life possible for seven organ recipients, including a 12-year-old girl who received a new heart (Jay, 2013).
Is it any wonder nurses are named the most trustworthy profession year after year? National Nurses Week starts May 6 and ends May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. The purpose of National Nurses Week is to raise awareness of the value of nursing and educate the public about the role nurses play in health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment of chronic and acute illnesses. Nurses like the ones described here are raising awareness of the value of nurses, one flight at a time, one country at a time. That pilot knows, those flight attendants know, that passenger knows, that family in Iran knows.
And speaking of nurses who make us proud-this issue features a new author for Home Healthcare Nurse. Brigadier General Carol Ann Fausone (retired) was the first nurse and first female General in the Michigan National Guard. She served her country for over 36 years before retiring in 2011, and continues to serve veterans, ensuring that they obtain the benefits they deserve. She answers a question about benefits for caregivers of veterans in Consult PRN. If you have a question about care of veterans or veterans' benefits, email me at mailto:[email protected] and General Fausone will answer it in an upcoming issue.
Happy Nurses Week!
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