Today was a very emotional clinical day for my 3rd semester ADN nursing students. Can you remember your first "Code Blue" while you were in nursing school or when you started practicing as a nurse?
Today my students had to experience their first "Code Blue". A student was in the hallway when a nurse started screaming from another room, "Call a Code!" The student looked around and started screaming, "Code Blue!" while running toward the nurse. When the student arrived outside the room, another nurse yelled at her saying, "Get in here, one day you will be running a code!". The student was shaking all over. She stated she was nervous, anxious and excited all at the sametime. She said, "I did not know how many emotions, I could go through in a matter of a few seconds". After the response team determined that the elderly client was not responding, the time of death was announced. This client was from a nursing home and no family was listed on her papers.
As the student walked out of the room, I realized she was about to cry. I insisted that her and I go into the lounge and discuss what she had just experienced and how the emotions that she was experiencing was normal. She started to cry! As we were talking, I began to think about my first "code" experience.
My first "code" experience occurred 6 months after becoming a nurse. I was working in the emergency department when a 5 year old began to choke. He was choking on a hot dog. The emergency physician was very young and unexperienced. He began to put his finger into the child's mouth trying to pull out the hot dog particle. The other nurse and I kept yelling at the physician to remove his fingers because he would push the hot dog further down the child's throat. In front of the parents, this physician continue to push and causing the child to become unconscious and stop breathing. After trying to revive this child for an hour, there was no response and the time of death was called. I remember looking at the child's parents and realizing they would never have their child back again. I began to cry. How could I look or try to comfort this family? This was something I did not learn in nursing school!
Nursing school does not prepare us emotionally for death. So we do not know how we should act or feel when death occurs to a client . I reassured the student that whatever emotion she was experiencing, it was normal and she should not feel guilty for showing her emotion.
Christie Phillips-Fearis
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