The touch!

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Before I go to sleep, I would like to share you an experience when we had our duty at the medical ward with my level 4 nursing students. I had a team leader, one medication student, and the 4 had to handle 2 patients each ( 1 benign and 1 toxic patient), so all in all we handled 8 patients. A patient at age 39 was wailing because she cannot move her left hand due to the intravenous insertion. My student cannot manage the patient so she called for me. What I did was, I asked her what is the pain scale, and she said 8/10. She cannot move her arm but the hand was not edematous, and there was no infiltration in the site along the intravenous catheter. I touched her hand and slowly I told her to relax her arm, then I massaged her hand while giving her some words of comfort. The IV fluid was dripping; later on, she said the pain subsided, and in a few minutes, she was already smiling and her mother thanked me and my students. It is in the touch and the attitude of the nurses that patients give their trust to these health care providers. That is the attitude that I want my students to learn and imbibe. That is another achievement on my part, and my student's as well. Have you been given comfort with a touch? Good night and see you all tomorrow