Thursday, May 6, 2010

thoughts on being a nurse

Being that it is Nurses Appreciation Week, and I am a Nurse, I wanted to write out some of my fondest memories of carrying that title.

1) I get to see some of the best visits from the Hair Fairy (not on my daughter or myself).
2) I have to challenge myself with new sites and smells. Some I never want to experience again.
3) I thrive yet despise a good adrenaline rush. Especially at 3 am.
4) I feel my blood pressure reach the boiling point when I get to deal with baby docs. Also when veteran docs are useless.
5) For 12 hour increments, I have an immense responsibility of caring for someones loved one. Someones mother, father, brother, sister, wife, husband, son, daughter, grandparent, etc.
6) I get told genuine thank-yous. Yet, I also sometimes get cursed at.
7) I get to challenge myself with being a great advocate for those who can not or do not know how to speak for themselves.
8) I get to share some of the most tragic and some of the most memorable moments with strangers. Often those strangers and I form an extension of friendship that I have never experienced anywhere else in my life.
9) I see the closeness of family and get to share the loss of another with them. I am always surprised how a family desires to embrace a stranger.
10) Most of all, I get to spend time with some of the most courageous souls I have ever met. They have no idea how much they bless me. Often I get more out of the relationship than they would ever know.

Almost 6 years ago I had the privilege of caring for one of the funniest, pleasant, loving, courageous, and appreciative cancer patients. He wrote this poem while on an extended visit. It is quirky and cute, definitely amateur, but I love it.

Guy in My Room

My dear Neldon haste to stand back at this time pace...
Another named George has taken his place.
He stands by my side...
Tall and stately is he
But as skinny, skinny as can be.
With a blue belly tied to his middle
He works all the time
Except when he's empty, kinked or unplugged.
Then he makes a squawk-that makes me bugged.
But glad to have a partner to take
me for walks...
and to the bathroom way to much.
Hold my IVs, blood, meds, and antibiotic.
I hope he don't think I'm neurotic.
As long as he's standing there
I know I'm safe.
Till I am able to get out of this place!


I love my job. It is an extension of me that could never be replaced. Sure there are days, weeks, months that I would rather be somewhere else. But I know that there would be an emptiness in me that could only be filled with sharing my time and talent with others.

1 comment:

  1. Cute poem! Very clever! It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about! You put it so well, what we do as nurses. It's the best (and the worst) and can be both in the same 12 hour period.

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