Alexis Robinson: For Mr. B
I never thought that a Coke bottle could change someone’s life.
Being a patient in a hospital can be the most annoying and tedious thing. At 7AM the nurse is waking you up, getting your day started. Then morning vital signs take place. Then around 7:30AM or 8AM your breakfast tray will arrive. After breakfast, the nurse will come back to give you your medications. Then the cycle of doctors, attending staff, and lab staff starts collecting tests or labs. Then lunch, then more labs, and then dinner. Every single day until 7PM when the next shift of nurses comes. Every single day until you leave the hospital.
*
I was a new nursing student doing my summer nurse externship at Prisma Health so, everything was exciting to me. I only knew the typical day of Self Regional Hospital so, I was very excited to learn everything about Prisma. However, Mr. B was not excited like me. He had been in the hospital for some time now and he was used to the schedule.
One shift I walked into Mr. B’s room and did my typically joyful morning greeting.
“Good morning! I am Alexis and I will be your nurse extern today. I will be with Michaela all day so if you need anything please let us know. I am going to take your morning vital signs now.”
He didn’t respond. He didn’t move from his sleeping position. He didn’t even acknowledge that someone was in his room (OK don’t panic! His chest was moving so he was breathing.).
I finished up his vital signs and left him be.
Later that morning, my preceptor Michaela and I came into his room to administer his morning medication and he was still in the same spot as I left him (I assumed that he was just a heavy sleeper, and he didn’t hear my first morning greeting. But how could he not hear my morning greeting, right?).
“Watch Alexis. You have to use some force to get him moving. MR. B!! IT’S TIME FOR YOUR MEDICINE!”
“STOP IT! I TRYIN’ TO SLEEP!” He rolls to his other side, but Michaela uses his bed remote to raise the head of the bed. In my head I was thinking he should know the drill by now but I guess I would be angry if I was getting good sleep and someone wakes me.
“I know but it’s 7AM. It’s time to get up for the day. I have your medicine here.”
We gave him his medicine and ordered his breakfast. After we leave his room, we gave medicine to the rest of our patients and documented what we did.
The rest of the day was a normal day of documentation and checking up on our patients or assisting the physicians as they requested.
My next shift goes the same way, and the next, and the next, until one shift changes my perspective.
*
It was a typical morning of receiving patients and waking them up at 7AM. Once again, I received Mr. B as one of my patients, so I greet him like I always do.
“Good morning! I am Alexis and I will be your nurse extern today. I will be with Michaela all day so if you need anything please let us know. I am going to take your morning vital signs now.”
He responded angrily, “MY BREAKFAST ISN’T HERE! I ORDERED TWENTY MINUTES AGO AND IT’S NOT HERE!”
I was in shock that he could speak at 7AM since he hasn’t every time I’ve seen him. I didn’t know people could get so angry at 7AM so I responded back, “Oh no! After I check your vital signs, I can call down to the kitchen to see if it’s on its way.”
After I checked his vital signs, I called down to Dining Services and asked about the delay of Mr. B’s breakfast tray.
“Dining Services told me that they ran out of bacon and had to cook some more so, it should be here in the next few minutes. Would you like any juice while you wait?”
“Do you have Coke?”
“No sorry I don’t have a Coke.”
“Then nothing.”
*
Like normal, I go into his room to check his vitals before lunch and ask him if he would like to go out to the lobby.
“NO! I DON’T WANNA GO OUT! I WANNA GET OUT OF HERE!”
He seemed sad all the time and Michaela informed me that he didn’t have any family nearby. Michaela also said that he has been here for a couple of months not wanting to do anything. So, I was determined to get him out of his room even if it was just for 5 minutes. I rallied all the staff on the floor to encourage him to go to the lobby. It took some time, but I finally got him out into the lobby.
I parked his wheelchair on a glass bridge that connected one building to another building and we just watched people silently. Every now and then we would speak about what a person was wearing or we would watch the cars passing outside.
“Hey Mr. B! Since you got out of your room I have a surprise for you.” I pull out a Coke bottle and gave it to him. His eyes brightened and with a smile so big that the room filled with sunshine.
“Oh Alexis! You know Coke is my favorite drink and they don’t keep it on the floor.”
“Yes I know. You ask for it every day so, I thought I would bring you one since you got out of your room. You know, a little treat.”
“Oh yes! Thank you. You know that I would buy a Coke every day going to work.”
“No I didn’t. Where did you work?”
“I was a truck driver. I would drive across the country.” (Coincidentally, one of my family members was a log truck driver. FINALLY! Something we can talk about.)
After talking about going cross country, he mentioned his love for cars. He would talk about every car he owned, every car he wished he owned, and every car he would pass on his trips. He would laugh when I would tell him stories about my driving (I am a terrible driver so, he would laugh at all the times I would have to turn around). I was in shock when he laughed because I have never heard him laugh.
I didn’t realize that we had been sitting on the bridge for over an hour until Michaela came to check up on us. Her face of awe and wonderstruck to see Mr. B laughing and smiling was priceless. I pushed Mr. B back into his room and he took a nap with a smile on his face.
To this day, I still call up to his room periodically and ask him about the cars he has seen on the bridge (The nurses make it their mission to let him sit on the bridge once a week.). Every time he picks up the phone he chirps up when he hears my voice. He is so eager to hear me talk about the different cars I’ve seen and all that I have been doing. I believe it takes him back to the time when he was driving cross country in his younger days. In anything nursing I am doing, Mr. B is always on my mind.
To see him go from a grouchy man that was angry at the world to this laughing personable person is extraordinary. This is why nursing is my passion. This is why I put myself through endless hours of studying, missing social events, and long 12-hour days. All it takes is a Coke!
Summer 2023 cohort group
Alexis Robinson is from Irmo, SC. She is graduating in May 2024 with a BS in Public Health. She did her nursing externship over the 2023 summer at Prisma Health in Columbia. Alexis plans on returning to Lander to finish her nursing degree in the fall.