A nurse: An angel in the real world
Nursing as an occupation involves a lot of qualities in a person, as well as talent and a lot of knowledge. Unfortunately, opinions in society are divided into two groups. Either they're angels or they're cafeteria loafers who want more money.
A nurse goes to high school or college for a few years, but no one prepares her for the real world. She learns how to make a bed, draw blood, the perfect function and composition of the human body, all the medications, and possible diseases and conditions associated with them. But what no one tells them is that a big part of the job is also a kind of art of empathy and adjustment.
It is a kind of liaison between the patient and the doctor. A liaison between the patient and the family. Often the sick person doesn't tell the doctor what's bothering them, they tell the nurse, who spends the most time with them. She has to be smart and savvy. Thinking ahead. She's got to stroke when it hurts and not lie when she knows it's not quite right.
This job isn't just about coffee, blood draws, or reading technical books. Hygiene, all the bodily excretions, lots of blood, young and old at the end of life and at their most difficult moments, lack of time and a full bladder, and hunger. All this, every day.
It's not caring for healthy and smiling people. It's caring for the sick, in pain, and accompanying people at the end of their lives. It's facing death. It's caring for the body of someone who has lived a life. Someone who has made a difference, who has experienced the joys and sorrows, who has accomplished something.
But despite this, we hear the public complaining that nurses complain about low pay and poor conditions. That they chose the work themselves. Yes, it is true. But not everyone would be able to come to terms with witnessing people's loss, and their pain.
Not everyone could hold an artery while it bleeds or carry out a container of excrement.
What do you think of the nurse's job? Could you do it?
