The Other Side of the Bed

BUSM Students Gain Skills and Perspective from “The Other Side of the Bed”

This summer, Boston University medical students had the opportunity to walk a mile, or in this case an eight-hour shift, in someone else’s shoes through a program aimed at fostering positive relationships between nurses and future physicians.

“The Other Side of the Bed” is a seven-week, full-time summer employment program that gives students direct experience caring for veteran patients. Accepted students work as health technicians at the VA Boston Healthcare System’s West Roxbury campus. Students work under the tutelage of a nurse mentor on various units, including medical intensive care, surgical intensive care, and emergency.

Jean Vilus, a rising second year student assigned to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), said the program offers many benefits.

“The nurses are the front line of patient care, and I learned a lot about how to interact with patients from them. I also gained an appreciation for how hard a nurse’s job is – I had no idea what it entailed until I spent my time here,” said Vilus.

Students Victoria Canelos and Leah Sax appreciated the breadth of skills they learned, from bedside manner to correct positioning to making a bed with a patient in it.

“I saw just how hard nurses work,” said Sax. “Most don’t even sit down and eat during an entire shift.” Sax also described the difference between this program and other shadowing experiences she has had as a medical student.

“This was the first time I felt that I was responsible for someone else,” she said.

Katherine Keefe worked in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), which she described as “a very different type of healthcare setting with lots of incredibly sick patients who likely won’t get much better.” Keefe said she learned the most from watching nurses interact with difficult patients. She told a story about a nurse who was kicked in the neck by a patient who was going through alcohol withdrawal. The nurse immediately turned to Keefe and said how sorry she was for her patient and what he was going through.

Another story involved a nurse who was racially discriminated against by a patient’s wife. “As time went on the wife insisted on having that nurse care for her husband, and eventually she confided in that nurse that she was so scared about her husband dying and leaving her alone,” Keefe recalled. Despite having been treated badly, the nurse cried for the patient and his wife for what they were going through.

“Seeing that openness will make me a better healthcare provider,” said Keefe.

Hyunjee Kwak was grateful for the amount of time she was able to spend with her patients.

“I hope that the compassion I gained from having so much time with patients doesn’t disappear when I’m a stressed out resident trying to get through a checklist of questions at the bedside,” Kwak said.

Kwak also recalled a memorable experience with a patient with a sense of humor.

“When he found out I was a med student he thought it would be funny to scream in pain when I touched him,” she laughed.

Maria Eberle bonded with a patient who was a BU alum. “After she learned we were both from BU, she would ring the call bell just to chat or to introduce me to her family members,” said Eberle.

One of Stephen Chang’s patients gave him a new perspective on his profession and his future. The patient told him, “I’ve had a pretty good life, but you, you’re going to be a doctor. You’re going to save peoples’ lives. What’s better than that?”

Chang told his classmates, “That really stopped me because I realized he’s right, what is better than that?”