What I Do at Work

The best part of being a rehabilitation nurse is celebrating the small steps our patients make every day. Today, the best thing was having the occupational therapist hook up one of our tetraplegic patients into a mobile arm support so he can feed himself. (See photo at left- note this is NOT my patient, just a google image hit.)

After breaking his neck, my patient suffered a spinal cord injury. Now not all of the muscles in his arms work, and his fingers do not move. Although he can move his arms, he does not have the capability of getting the fork into the food and the food to his mouth without help. The mobile arm support allows him to move his arm in a robotic-looking support system suspended on the back of his wheelchair, so that he can eat without much assistance.

Can you imagine having people feed you, bathe you, dress you, and do just about everything else for you all the time? While you are recovering from a spinal cord injury, that is exactly what happens for a many people, like my patient. After a 3 weeks of this dependence, my patient took a huge step today. The first time I saw a big smile across his face was on his third bite, when the OT asked him "Doesn't this beat the heck out of having someone feed you?" He fed himself all three meals today. I asked him if his arm was tired, and my patient told me it was, as he put another bit of food in his mouth. I am so proud of him, because I know what he accomplished today was not easy.