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| Happy Nurses Week! |
Happy and healthy Nurses day and a sincere thank you to my fellow nurses who have shaped nursing to be what it is today. As nurses, I encourage each of you to remember what brought you to nursing, was it your caring spirit, your desire to serve others, your ability to critically think, your flexibility with schedules and juggling multiple tasks, your desire to help others, your ability to teach and make a difference, your ability to adapt to different environments and different situations, your love for life new and old, your love of challenges, your love for people?
I started out a computer major; but, it didn’t take long for
me to know that wasn’t my calling. It
was my father who suggested nursing. I
had a caring spirit and big heart; he knew it would be a match for me. It’s interesting, once I changed majors I
never doubted if I made the right choice as I had when I was a computer major. Not
once did I look back. I knew serving and
caring for others was where I was meant to be; and on some occasions I believe
God has placed me in certain situations to show me that I am carrying out what
I was and am called to do.
Once you are a Nurse you are always a Nurse. Your
nursing duties don’t stop when you leave your place of work. You are called upon by friends, friends of
friends, family, neighbors, and others to diagnosis and give advice over the
phone (I love the ones about skin lesions over the phone), or over the fence,
at a party, or at a sporting event. It
doesn’t even have to be a sick person for someone to call, it could be
regarding a sick pet after the Veterinarian’s office is closed; the duties are
endless. Just recently I was attending a
festival with my mother when a man collapsed at my feet. There was no doubt; I
was where I was supposed to be. No,
nursing duties are never shut off and there is no notice as to when you will be
called to use your skills. But, it
doesn’t matter; because Nurses always step up.
Nurses are mighty,
strong, tender and kind. Nurses are
called upon in the toughest of times and the darkest of times AND
we always deliver. Nurses have
consistently shown to be reliable responders when disaster strikes; when others
are fleeing the danger, it’s the nurse who runs to it and sees you through it
–even putting their own safety at risk.
The outpouring of nurse volunteers in the wake of the Haiti earthquake
and the many other natural disasters we have faced are evidence of this.
When you’re short staffed on the unit and patients need
extra time and attention, who steps up? When
the physicians are out of the office, who keeps the office open, who answers
phone calls of the distressed, who has to give unfavorable test results or lab
results and walk through each emotion with a stranger, who provides lifesaving
advice over the telephone, who is it you first see when you come into the
emergency room? It’s a Nurse. Who
delivers the baby when the physician can’t make it there in time? It’s a Nurse. Who else will hold your head when you are
sick and clean you up, who else can titrate medications at mcg/kg/min at split
second notice, who else can throw out the guidelines when clinical scenario
calls for it, who else can make life and death decision at a moment notice, who
else holds a hand, says a prayer and sheds a tear with a stranger during their
last moments? It’s a Nurse. And it will always be a Nurse. That’s
the nature of nursing. Nurses touch
lives and there will not be many in this world who hasn’t or won’t need a nurse
in their lifetime.
If you are reading
this and you are not a nurse; most likely at some point in your life you will
need a nurse for a test result, for advice, to hold your hand, to see you
through a critical moment or time in your life. Don’t worry, we will be
there. And now with health care at the
center of political debates and payment systems and health care eligibility
changes occurring, who is called upon yet again? Nurses.
When the population demanded more providers and better access to health
care, who stepped up? Nurses. When the government stopped reimbursing for
hospital acquired infections or 30 day readmissions for certain diseases, or
when reduction in hospital stay is demanded, who does the administrators of the
health system call upon? Nurses. Who will see the health system through the
political and financial challenges demanded by our time? Nurses.
Thanks colleagues for making nursing what it is today. Because of you, we are in high demand, by
administrators, insurance companies, employers, government and, most
importantly, our patients.
There is no
better time to be a Nurse.
