Do you have any idea who I am?
I mean besides the nurse in white, who cares for your loved one?
I, too, am a mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, daughter or son.
I have family that I love and love to be with.
I enjoy many activities, reading, writing, music, crafts, cooking, driving, fishing, and many others.
If you could just take the time to know me, you may be able to better understand me.
I too would like to be at home with my family on holidays, but the fact is, I spend most holidays with your loved one, here, working.
I knew this when I chose nursing as a career, I do my best to be cheerful and happy while my family is home feasting on holiday meals… without me there. I’m here because I care about my patients.
Perhaps, if I were a robot there would never be errors, but then robots don’t hug too well do they? I do hug my patients, they need to be touched. I tuck them into bed at night too, maybe rub feet or a back, or sing them to sleep.
Yes, I know that this facility and the employees aren’t perfect, but we truly try, and yelling at us won’t make us perfect, it makes us feel unappreciated and humiliated.
Do you know how bad I feel when I have to call you, and tell you that your loved one fell, or is ill? Do you realize how often I get hit, spit on, slapped, scratched, pushed, called names, and bitten each day?
I’ve learned more patience than I ever thought possible.
So, lets call a truce, I won’t complain, if you won’t yell at me.
I will try to make things run more smoothly… if you’ll bear with me and realize that I’m a human working with confused humans, and I’m just not perfect…
We both need to remember that we live in an imperfect world, for if it were perfect, we wouldn’t be here now.
Nice! Its so seldom I read anything about nursing without all that sugar coated, corporate fearing, naive idiocy permeating every word. I especially hate those deluded manager pleasing poems you see about how nurses have to go the extra mile and play like we’re saints. Somewhere along the line the profession picked up that religious baggage and the corporate dogs use it to keep us subservient. I don’t believe Florence was all that religious either but I do believe she was a helping person like most nurses. (We’re good codependents too.) I don’t know if she also tended the soldiers ‘other’ needs, so to speak, but they sure didn’t object the care for their wounds. I don’t see doctors being pushed around by all all that saintly pressure. Maybe one day when nurses are more powerful and we contract with hospitals nurses will get more respect. In the meantime I am glad to see others like myself writing about reality and not just some propaganda!