I'm not one for standing on a soap box, but in light of comments made
on The View about Miss Colorado's recent monologue I couldn't help
myself.
As a nursing student one professor told us that while
medicine treats the disease, nursing treats the human reaction to the
disease.
I, like so many other colleagues, have had to defend
myself and explain I am more than 'just a nurse' and while I was smart
enough to cut it in medical school it was not my calling. We do more
than cle
an up poop and give bed baths;
there is nothing sexy about the scrubs we wear or being covered in
someone else's bodily fluids. Day in and day out, nurses (and PCT's)
monitor you or your loved ones for minor changes in vital signs and
mental status. We double and triple check to make sure your orders and
medications are correct. We chart, we analyze your lab results and we
spend MUCH more time with you than the doctors (nothing against many of
the hard working, compassionate doctors I have met over the last two
years, that is just how it goes).
Over the last few years I have experienced the joy of parents meeting
their child for the first time, reviewed diagnoses and medications with
patients until they fully understand their discharge instructions and
held the hands of family members as a loved one took their last breaths.
So tomorrow I will put on my scrubs, don my 'doctor's stethoscope' and
head to work with nearly 4 million other registered nurses. The job is
truly a calling and I for one could not be prouder to be part of the
most honorable profession in U.S.
Well put!
ReplyDelete