Engaging, Living, Death, Compassion, and all in Between

Soon to be thirty-eight years ago, I started on a journey. I can say that it has been a long but enlightening one. Over that period I have learned more than I can say that I have wanted but I have also grown into the person that I am today because of it. There is a calling they say to different professions. A doctor, persist, peace keeper and a nurse. I am the later of them. I started as a child playing nurse to my dolls and animals. There were days that I spent hours at play. Some say that it a waste of time. A child's imagination shapes them and should be encouraged. I had nurse's and doctor kits my mother bought me from the dime store. At least that was what it was called then. I am sure she never thought it would lead to my now career.

I started in nursing when I was a teen at a local nursing home. Each scheduled work day I would leave school at the end of the day and travel to my job in which I put in approximately a six or six and a half hour shift. I worked an ambulatory wing in the evening taking care of the elderly who lived there. I grew to love them and I remember the stories of them. One in particular was of great fondness. She had been in her younger days a legal secretary in New York. She was a beautiful woman, although with time passing she didn't think so. She felt she had no usefulness but she was of great meaning to me. Her name was Marci, and I loved her dearly. She told me of living in New York and she had beautiful clothes, even then.

Over the years I have met many Marci's and fine gentlemen that are all gone now. Each one of them has touched my life and I surely will never forget them. The nursing profession has changed drastically from the time I started in 1980. Without offending anyone, it is geared more to keeping impressions, paper work and keeping up with technology than the bedside nursing. The nurses of today aren't taught the art of compassion. Not all, but most are entering in to the field because of money, or the idea that it is glamourous. It is far from a glamourous profession.

When Florence Nightingale started the first facility, it was run by prostitutes because they were easily expendable. If they contracted a disease it was not an issue. They expected some of their staff to die in treating the sick and dying. Today it is looked as a professional career with high education. Nursing is a calling just as any career is that involves people’s lives. Being a nurse is thankless. I have been hit, bit, urinated on, defecated on, cursed and Lied upon. That are just some of the things that are not so glamourous about the profession.

So what do you get out of it? The reward that the patient you have been fighting for walks out of the door alive. You helped save a life that is precious to someone. I can tell you there are some days I forget that, especially a tough, unforgiving one. As a nurse you must remember, it's about the public you serve and not about yourself. Lord knows I have spent years of weekends and holidays away from my family to care for others. Do you suppose there is a welcoming committee in heaven for old nurses? I hope so. Perhaps we will see those we have served and here, thank you for your kindness, care and mercy.

Happy Nurses week to all my Nursing friends out there. May you find happiness and peace on your journey?

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