My hospital encounter with student nurses
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #6
March 9, 2026
My hospital encounter with student nurses
One of the highlights of my long, boring and uncomfortable hospital stay was an hour or so that I spent with seven nursing students and their instructor. The students were from Bergen County Community College and four a day each week they were assigned to the floor where I was a patient. How this meeting happened started rather unexpectantly.
As I had gotten stronger during recovery, the hospital staff encouraged me to do more walking. I couldn’t just get up and walk. For reasons know only to God, and the medical staff, I was labeled a “fall risk.” This precluded me from being able to walk on my own. Instead, I had to wait for a staff escort. This was cumbersome but it felt good to walk. I attempted to do four circles around the unit four times each day.
One afternoon I saw a woman of about my age in a uniform that was unique and unlike any of the uniforms that the medical staff was wearing. I was a bit curious about her uniform but did not stop to ask. I was a little busy with my walk. On my third trip around the unit, she was looking at the various bags and bottles on my IV pole. Something had clearly caught her attention.
On my fourth round of walking, she stopped and asked how long I would be walking and asked if she could come by afterward and talk to me. I invited her to stop by after the fourth round and told her my room number. She arrived promptly.
Because of the number of bottles and bags on my IV pole, she assumed that I suffered a serious illness and asked what was happening. When I told her about my illness which began last June but worsened in September. She tried to keep a straight face, but I could see her eyes widen. She knew that I had been through a lot. She introduced herself as a nursing instructor and asked if she could bring her students in to hear my story. Of course, I consented.
When I told my medical story, these students stood wide-eyed. They were unfamiliar with any of the medical issues that I was dealing with. A number asked me follow-up questions. The instructor asked me to tell these students from the perspective of a patient, how nurses could best serve patients. We had a good dialogue on that.
Finally, with my permission, the instructor had the students use stethoscopes to listen to my bowel sounds and describe what they were hearing. Medical people always seem interested in bowel sounds. I really don’t know why this is but they always seem to be.
Finally, the instructor ended the student’s visit, and they all thanked me for speaking with them. I thanked them for breaking up the monotony of the day. They left to complete their studies and I wished them well. I hoped that I had given them a gift even as they gave one to me. They had broken up the boredom of the day and had given me the gift of listening. I, in turn, had given them insight into a complicated medical case and had taught them how to be better nurses as they interact with patients. I guess that we were good for one another.
I thank the instructor and student nurses for giving my one interesting day during my hospitalization and pray that they will train well and will become the finest nurses ever to be graduated.
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