I also added, honestly, that the family members who had changed their ways actually felt better on a daily basis, as well as had a better prognosis in terms of their health. This was the true essence, I stated, of "loving life" in my opinion. I tried to make him see what he was going to have to do after his operation as a gain, rather than a loss. He would be regaining control over his health, and would feel younger and better. I tried to help this patient feel empowered, by going into detail what would happen to him during the operation in layperson's terms. I could see that feeling in control was very important to him, and I tried to facilitate that sense of control. After the operation, I saw the patient again, when he was going to see his grandson who had had some minor surgery on the pediatric ward. The patient had lost weight, and moved with a spring in his step. He said that the surgery had been just the 'scare' he needed to improve his health. He also thanked me for the time I had taken to make the

It was, in many ways, simple common sense, at least from a nurse's perspective. But by taking the effort to put it into the type of vocabulary the patient could comprehend, and framing it in a way that would make him receptive, given his personality, age, and gender, he felt that the advice I had given him seemed new and bracing. Often, the methods of communication are just as important as the message, in terms of securing patient compliance. This was the lesson this particular patient taught me: and every patient teachers his or her nurse, just as the nurse must act as a teacher.