thedrifter
08-25-09, 06:43 AM
Nurse’s violin soothes VA patients
By Sara Patterson - The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal via AP
Posted : Monday Aug 24, 2009 14:33:12 EDT
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Over the drip of intravenous fluid, the pumping of the ventilation machine and the beeping of the heart rate monitor, the rich sound of music pours into Sid Woodard’s hospital room.
The 68-year-old retired Navy man doesn’t say anything — he’s under heavy medication in the intensive care unit at the Memphis Veterans Medical Center — but his family can see a difference after his nurse, Lori Sykes, plays the violin.
“Earlier today, he was getting agitated, realizing he had the tube down his throat, but she started singing and he calmed down,” said his wife, Pat.
Sykes, 35, sings and plays for any of her patients who care to hear, always toting a violin case over her shoulder.
Playing from memory, she transitions seamlessly from church hymns to classical songs. “Amazing Grace” is one of her favorites.
“I can’t stand to see suffering,” she said. “Any way I can, I’ll try to alleviate it.”
Sykes began playing violin at age 3. She trained with her sister in the Community Music School Suzuki program at the University of Memphis. Her parents’ families couldn’t afford instruments growing up, she said, so they pushed all of their children to play. The kids received extra allowance if they practiced at least 30 minutes a day.
Sykes’ older sister Chenoa is now a professional violinist, and her brother learned to play the piano but let it go for football.
“He’d be carving into the piano, it was a wooden piano, [saying] ‘I hate this!’ ” she said. “There was a time where I said, ‘I want to go out, go play or play anything else,’ but you grow to appreciate it.”
Sykes’ mother was an inspector of mental health facilities and a counselor at the Memphis Mental Health Institute. She brought Sykes with her to work to make music for the people she visited.
“I like to go places where people seem the neediest,” said Sykes.
When she worked with trauma patients at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, and now in her work in the ICU at the veterans hospital, Sykes kept her violin by her side.
“The first time I heard her, I literally started crying and had chills running all down my arms,” said Kimberly Johnson, a registered nurse at the veterans hospital.
Sykes played for one of Johnson’s patients in the ICU shortly after beginning work in September. The man had no control of his arms or legs, but he bobbed his head along with the tune, a grin on his face.
“If she sees the need, then she plays. With all the bells and whistles of the ICU, this is very calming,” Johnson said.
That sense of calm is something Sykes hopes to restore in hospitals. Her holistic approach to care giving is part of a personal mission to effect change in the system.
“I hope that eventually health care will slow down and become more patient-focused than computer-focused,” she said.
Ellie
By Sara Patterson - The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal via AP
Posted : Monday Aug 24, 2009 14:33:12 EDT
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Over the drip of intravenous fluid, the pumping of the ventilation machine and the beeping of the heart rate monitor, the rich sound of music pours into Sid Woodard’s hospital room.
The 68-year-old retired Navy man doesn’t say anything — he’s under heavy medication in the intensive care unit at the Memphis Veterans Medical Center — but his family can see a difference after his nurse, Lori Sykes, plays the violin.
“Earlier today, he was getting agitated, realizing he had the tube down his throat, but she started singing and he calmed down,” said his wife, Pat.
Sykes, 35, sings and plays for any of her patients who care to hear, always toting a violin case over her shoulder.
Playing from memory, she transitions seamlessly from church hymns to classical songs. “Amazing Grace” is one of her favorites.
“I can’t stand to see suffering,” she said. “Any way I can, I’ll try to alleviate it.”
Sykes began playing violin at age 3. She trained with her sister in the Community Music School Suzuki program at the University of Memphis. Her parents’ families couldn’t afford instruments growing up, she said, so they pushed all of their children to play. The kids received extra allowance if they practiced at least 30 minutes a day.
Sykes’ older sister Chenoa is now a professional violinist, and her brother learned to play the piano but let it go for football.
“He’d be carving into the piano, it was a wooden piano, [saying] ‘I hate this!’ ” she said. “There was a time where I said, ‘I want to go out, go play or play anything else,’ but you grow to appreciate it.”
Sykes’ mother was an inspector of mental health facilities and a counselor at the Memphis Mental Health Institute. She brought Sykes with her to work to make music for the people she visited.
“I like to go places where people seem the neediest,” said Sykes.
When she worked with trauma patients at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, and now in her work in the ICU at the veterans hospital, Sykes kept her violin by her side.
“The first time I heard her, I literally started crying and had chills running all down my arms,” said Kimberly Johnson, a registered nurse at the veterans hospital.
Sykes played for one of Johnson’s patients in the ICU shortly after beginning work in September. The man had no control of his arms or legs, but he bobbed his head along with the tune, a grin on his face.
“If she sees the need, then she plays. With all the bells and whistles of the ICU, this is very calming,” Johnson said.
That sense of calm is something Sykes hopes to restore in hospitals. Her holistic approach to care giving is part of a personal mission to effect change in the system.
“I hope that eventually health care will slow down and become more patient-focused than computer-focused,” she said.
Ellie