It takes a lot of brains to be a Nurse.
A lot of people totally misunderstand that being a nurse requires a complete package. Complete package of having the heart, mind, body and soul. A soul that always knows what to do to heal itself. Nurses are one of the best professions in the world. Without them? All patients will die. Yes. ALL patients will die.
So, what it's really like to be a Nurse?
Being a nurse is about 90% calling and 10% job. Everyday we come face to face with life, death, joy and grief. And all of the course our nursing lives, we never quit learning. Some things we learn only nurses would understand. And some are universal. Our dispense with the little of what we've learned now.
You'll go through at least 4 pairs of shoes a year. A comfortable pair you're most important piece of equipment, and that of coffee.
Wash Your Hands. I know that sounds obvious. Saying you're a nurse and being a nurse are two very different things. Your very first medication would be a dose of reality and your second will be a dose of humility.
You will learn to deal with life and death everyday but you'll be helping families who would be dealing with it for the first time.
Faith is medicine. As is laughter, as is music and as our dogs. Support hoes. You might feel old wearing them but someday your legs won't look old because you did.
There would be days when you cry on your way to work and there will be days when you cry on your way home. All of those days will pass. You'll either love night shift or you'll hate night shift and somewhere along the line, you'll probably change your mind. Night shift will eat anything.
Manage your time well. It would be the difference between walking what feels like twenty miles and what feels like 50 miles. Wash Your Hands. Chocolate is a therapy. Some events are milestones like seeing your first baby born, or your first code or the death of a patient.
Nurses trained residents. Doctors can't do what they do without you. You can't do what you do without each other. You treat one patient at a time and you treat them completely with all your attention and then you move on.
Patients are often in your life for only a short while. You are often in theirs for the rest of it. Almost everybody likes pudding and jello. Drink lots of water. Wash Your Hands. Celebrate small victories could losses behind you. You're never alone. When you feel alone just reached out, you'll find a nurse standing there.
You wont have to watch your back but you will have to protect it. Nurses find humor and things most people find disgusting.
You'll learn to appreciate piggy back and IV fluids. When nobody's looking, dance. You will go to saving a life one minute to cleaning up an incontinent patient and then the next. Life is ironic.
Patients will teach you more than you teach them. Check, recheck and then recheck again.
You'll learn to love sticking people and take pride in being able to establish an IV when others think its possible. There will be patients now and again who will remind you and why you chose to be a nurse. Embrace those moments. Remember to breath.
In the end, when its all said and done, you simply have to care.
HURRAY NURSES! God Bless us All! ^_^
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6teHGhoG8I
