Before I began writing this paper, it took me a long time to reflect on my past clinical experiences to pick out one significant moment during my time there. As I was thinking about it, I decided that there wasn’t one notable moment that made me feel like I was making a difference in a patient’s life but it was the little moments that made their day better! I remember one day during clinical, I was completing my assessment on an old man that had a hip replacement. He was supposed to stay less than a week or so but he had a hospital-acquired infection that caused a prolonged stay. As I was asking him about how he was doing he seemed very sad and fed up with being in this uncomfortable environment. I then stopped doing my assessment to ask him more questions about his life at home. I was genuinely interested in what he missed most about his household and he mentioned his bed. We continued our conversation and he started to open up and seemed a bit more relaxed than before I walked in. This patient then went to physical therapy in the late morning. As his room was empty, I made it a point to clean his room a little bit and make him a fresh bed with crisp clean sheets. Later that day, I went back into his room around lunchtime and asked him if he enjoyed his bed and he said “Yes, you know nothing is better than a fresh bed.” His entire demeanor had changed completely compared to the morning. Granted he may not have been a morning person but I feel like that little effort and extra thought I had to make remake his bed made a difference in his day! This act may not have been something that was life-changing for the patient, but I know that this patient had a better night’s sleep and day because of the neat bedding. I hope to keep having meaningful conversations with my patients and to hopefully someday make a life-changing difference in someone’s life!
