Im just finishing up 3/3.....its been a long, intense weekend. It always amazes me how hectic things can get inside the hospital walls while the world outside continues to function at status quo, unless you're part of it, it's not easy to comprehend. But shift after shift, good or bad, we return, and walk in through those hospital doors, to give 110% to our patients, our colleagues, and ourself regardless of the unit, assignment, or acuity of the patient, this is who we are.
For the longest time I wanted to be a nurse. Lucky for me, I literally had no clue what that meant! Just Kidding! No one becomes a nurse because they know what it entails; the long hours, intense situations, the emotional rollercoaster, and the physical strain are only part of it. They don't understand that being a nurse is about-spoon feeding your stroke patient who was just at the park playing with his grandkids yesterday and now can't talk or move half of his body, or holding the hand of a dying woman in her last moments when you're so busy, but you're the closest "family" she's got, or "pulling out all stops" and administering CPR on a 95 year old patient who just went asystole, and whose health has been failing for quite some time, but you are respecting his wishes to stay a full code, and staying late (even though you're tired, hungry, and beat down) to help another nurse finish up because "no man left behind." This is what's it's like to be a nurse. This is what's it's like to be a nurse. It's all the good, the bad, and the ugly, it's as addictive as any drug, it's a way of life, and one I'm grateful to call my own.
I look back to my last semester of nursing school when I was struggling really badly. I was emotionally drained from fighting so hard to maintain my grades, and dedicate enough time to my family and work. I was months away from graduating, but I was ready to throw in the towel. After class one day I walked up to my professor and told her "I hate this, I wanna quit, this isn't for me." She looked at me and said "If you wanted to leave then you would have."
I don't know if I believe in those "ah-ha" moments-I'm a practical person, I'm a nurse. However, these words have stuck with me; and shift after grueling shift, week after grueling week, I still continue to show up and dedicate everything I have to every person I care for, not for me, but for them. I work without judgement or prejudice of my patients, their families, or my collegues, and at the end of the day it's exhausting but it's completely worth it.
For the longest time I wanted to be a nurse. Lucky for me, I literally had no clue what that meant! Just Kidding! No one becomes a nurse because they know what it entails; the long hours, intense situations, the emotional rollercoaster, and the physical strain are only part of it. They don't understand that being a nurse is about-spoon feeding your stroke patient who was just at the park playing with his grandkids yesterday and now can't talk or move half of his body, or holding the hand of a dying woman in her last moments when you're so busy, but you're the closest "family" she's got, or "pulling out all stops" and administering CPR on a 95 year old patient who just went asystole, and whose health has been failing for quite some time, but you are respecting his wishes to stay a full code, and staying late (even though you're tired, hungry, and beat down) to help another nurse finish up because "no man left behind." This is what's it's like to be a nurse. This is what's it's like to be a nurse. It's all the good, the bad, and the ugly, it's as addictive as any drug, it's a way of life, and one I'm grateful to call my own.
I look back to my last semester of nursing school when I was struggling really badly. I was emotionally drained from fighting so hard to maintain my grades, and dedicate enough time to my family and work. I was months away from graduating, but I was ready to throw in the towel. After class one day I walked up to my professor and told her "I hate this, I wanna quit, this isn't for me." She looked at me and said "If you wanted to leave then you would have."
I don't know if I believe in those "ah-ha" moments-I'm a practical person, I'm a nurse. However, these words have stuck with me; and shift after grueling shift, week after grueling week, I still continue to show up and dedicate everything I have to every person I care for, not for me, but for them. I work without judgement or prejudice of my patients, their families, or my collegues, and at the end of the day it's exhausting but it's completely worth it.
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