Legere Speaks to Power of Nurse-Patient Relationship

Karen Legere, right, connects with her patient, Sandra Therrien.

Karen Legere, BSN, RN, OCN, recipient of the 2011 Essence of Nursing Award, addressed a group of 500 nurses, family members, friends and hospital leadership during the Nurse Recognition Dinner May 10. The following are her remarks.

Thank you for being here tonight and celebrating what it means to be a nurse at Brigham and Women’s. First, I want to tell you how honored I am to be standing here before you. It’s wonderful to be recognized for the work that I love doing. It means so much to me to be a nurse, and I feel so proud to be a BWH nurse.

I want to thank Colleen West who nominated me for the Essence of Nursing Award. I also want to thank everyone who wrote letters of support for me and the amazing staff and leadership of 5B and the oncology service. I would not be here without the support of all of you.

Booker T. Washington once said, “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

So what does excellent nursing practice look like to me? Most importantly, what does it look like to our patients? What patients have told me is that “an excellent nurse knows me and knows what it is I need.”

It may sound like a simple concept, but in practice, genuinely knowing our patients is the most powerful skill we have. This is what makes people feel safe and cared for.

When a person enters our world, they are incredibly vulnerable; it’s frightening. Things move fast in the hospital. We speak in acronyms and use medical terminology. There are foreign odors. It’s noisy and sometimes chaotic. It’s like being in a country where you don’t speak the language or understand the culture.

An excellent nurse learns their patient’s story, who they are, where they’ve been, what their fears and expectations are, and what really matters to them. Once we have this knowledge, we are able to tailor our care to their needs.

Our patients are unique people with individual needs outside of their disease or treatment plan.

Getting to know each patient, and using that knowledge to care for them, builds trust. When we have our patients’ trust, they will let us walk beside them through their experience, be their advocate, ease their pain, help them heal or make their last days comfortable.

No matter how well we know the patient, we will never be able to know how they feel. But that’s ok, we don’t need to know exactly how they feel - we need to know how to sit with them through it, and just be there for them.

But the nurse-patient relationship is not all about giving. It’s also about what we take away from the experience.

Accept and appreciate what your patients can teach you, hear their stories and learn from their experiences. This is what I truly love about being a nurse. Some days I think I have gained more than I have given.

These things your patients share with you - the courage, the sadness, the wisdom, the fear, the happiness and the hope - they are yours to keep. Let them enrich your nursing practice and your life, and if you don’t already, you will come to love your work.