Tranisha Hardy: Our Forgotten Heroes: Providing Care at Home

It is crazy how something as simple as a hot dog has the potential to change someone’s life. If I’m being honest, I was not excited to work with a bunch of old men. I thought they would all be dirty, racist, and make me feel uncomfortable daily. Although I did get some of that, most of them were loving, kind, appreciative, and instilled confidence in me every day by telling me how great of a nurse I will be. This summer I was able to grasp a better understanding of how things I take for granted, like the ability to eat a hot dog whenever I want, can give someone else a better quality of life. 

Unlike most people, who spend their breakaways overseas or even at internships in other states, I was able to do mine while still in the state of South Carolina. I spent my summer as a Student Nurse Extern at the South Carolina Department of Mental Health in an all veteran nursing facility in Columbia. Through my externship I was able to work under the guidance of a Registered Nurse and learn nursing skills that have taught me to be independent, to have confidence, and to be comfortable around patients, their families, and interdisciplinary work. May through August, I worked 40+ hours a week, and from August on I have worked every break and some weekends. I can honestly say that I became fully immersed into the culture of the facility and even military culture. During my time at the facility and at the VA, my residents taught me things about myself, military life, and even life in general that I would not have been able to learn elsewhere.

At the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, one of the first things they teach in orientation is that they are in the “top 5,” meaning they are one of the five most important government agencies in the state because of the people they serve. However, another thing that I learned is that when it comes to slashing funding, as one of presenters at orientation put it, "the mental health budget is usually 'top 2 and usually not number 2,'” both nationally and locally. Honestly, if I could change one thing about the entire experience, it would be to never learn that information. Shortly after orientation, I found out that I was placed in an all veterans facility. Sadly, upon starting I came to realize that the men who have served our country, some dating back to World War II, have limited daily freedoms and are fed only slightly better than prisoners. This realization was very hard for me in the beginning and I felt a lot of anger and resentment towards our government and the leaders within the agency. If I would not have learned so much about the political side of how the agency is run, I feel like I would not have harbored as much animosity. This situation, and great Registered Nurses, taught me to pick and choose my battles and learn to "take off the cape" and  leave my “save the world” mentality at home. Because of this experience, I am a believer that “ignorance is bliss.”

As previously stated, I spent a lot of time at the VA accompanying the residents to their appointments. The residents were always excited because, although they are veterans, they have very little freedom in the facility, and even fewer opportunities to ever leave. The VA hospital is like its own little world. It has its own shops, cafeteria, and during the summer there would be local retailers there selling merchandise flea market style. Most days, transport would ensure we arrived early for the appointment and chances are, we would be waiting to get picked up at least one hour after the appointment. Because of this, most of the residents took advantage of the free time. They would take the opportunity to shop for themselves and their relatives and, most importantly, visit the café as a chance to indulge in food they never get to eat anymore. 

Once, a patient ordered a chill-cheese dog and a coke. On this particular day, this patient had talked about how excited he was to get his hot dog and coke all the way to the VA. When we left, he talked about how excited he was to sit out on the front porch and enjoy the weather while he ate. He was not on any type of diet restrictions, but when we returned to the nursing facility, we were both reprimanded. Other residents are allowed to bring food in all of the time, so I asked the nurse why this resident, who never had friends or family bring him anything, was yelled at for a simple hotdog. I also asked her how she would feel if she could not enjoy the luxury of eating at her favorite fast-food restaurant whenever she wanted to. The answers I received were very vague, lacked empathy and, needless to say, I was really bothered by it. These feelings made me check myself constantly when providing care for these patients. I never wanted them to feel as if I, someone who is basically a child, was treating them like children. I also never wanted them to feel like I was taking away their personal freedoms. It also made me realize all of the freedoms I take for granted.

 These are not feelings of sympathy. Though I feel bad for how our mentally ill veterans are treated by the state and federal governments, my feelings are more so of wanting to treat them the way I would want to be treated or the way I would want my parents to be treated in this situation. Something as simple as going to a doctor’s appointment and getting a hotdog for lunch made this patient’s entire day.

When people speak about our veterans, people tend to focus on how they fought in wars past or present for our freedoms. My externship taught me that our institutionalized veterans still fight for their own personal freedoms every day. Where I interned, with the Department of Mental Health, the money is constantly being cut, both in-state and federally. As a result, the men who have served our country are fed the same food as state prisoners, with very little variation from week to week. They are also housed in close quarters with very little room for personal space. Their independence is often taken away and they are treated more like children or minimum-security prisoners than heroes. Thanks to some of the brave men who have served our country since World War II, I learned to venture out of my comfort zone, to try to put myself in the shoes of others more, and to never take my personal freedoms for granted. These quality life lessons, along with the many nursing skills I was able to improve on, are more important than anything I could have ever learned in a classroom alone. 

Tranisha Hardy is a Junior Nursing Major from Newberry, South Carolina. She has done a year long externship with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health in Columbia. She plans to graduate in May 2020. After graduation she hopes to work as a Psychiatric/Behavioral Health Nurse in the Columbia area.