Every year, one week is dedicated and meant to recognize all the nurses around our nation… and guess what??! that week is here. National Nurses week is always held May 6 through the 12th.. most nurses don’t actually know why these specific dates were chosen. And guess what? Im including myself in that group. For those of you who don’t know.. I am a nurse and another little secret…but shh.. so is my boyfriend! ( our dinner conversations are quite interesting and inappropriate at times hehe) After some reading and researching I found why these dates were chosen. The dates were chosen because,May 6 some years back, was the first date recognized as “Nurses Day.” To extend the recognition, it was then established as “Nurses week” which was to end on the 12th of May, Florence Nightingales birthday (The mother of Nursing.) <- Fun fact. =P
Well this week has been nothing but a struggle at work.. just sick sick people. Not just sick as in cough, sneeze and sniffles.. But a little mixture of that kind of sick, sick as in inappropriate and sick as in the head and unfortunately very very sick elderly individuals.
I had a lot of time to think about the purpose of celebrating nurses and recognizing the work they do. It might sound a little bias stating that.. since i am a nurse myself. Truth is i have never been asked the questions…“What made you choose this profession?” “How can you deal with all that you do and all that you see?’” as i have this past week.
Us nurses see death, crazy, sadness, grossness, unfairness, negligence, the bad and the ugly.. But we also get to see new life, love, bonding of a family, justice, relief, laughs and smiles… and whats most amazing about it all, is that we sometimes get to see all these emotions in a matter of 12 hours! eek!
When i first started nursing school, i was part of a class about the size of 92… long behold, i graduated with around 50 of those who i started with.This profession isn’t for any ‘normal’ individual. I think it takes a ‘different’ kind of person to be able to handle all these things and more in a matter of 12 hours. We have to be survivors at the end of shift, be able to go home and be able to cope with everything we just had to see in a matter of 12 hours and get our own emotions in check at the end of it all. We really are super heroes. We not only have our own lives in our hands and those of our families, but when we leave to go to work, we take on up to 7 more lives and the lives of their families in our hands… and MAN OH MAN! that’s a lot of responsibility while we hold our pee for the 10 of those 12 hours and don’t get to eat lunch till 5pm if that!
So why “ Did i choose this profession?” Because i love what i have learned in school.. because even though were not taught everything we need to know when were out there in the real world.. I chose it because ..I CAN. Because no matter how many times we get cursed out by patients, and families and yelled out by doctors. I can. I can survive those emotions and the struggles of those 12 hours. And because through it all, we get that one family, that one patient who really touches you and is grateful that we were by their side. Because from each individual i have come across, i have learned something and every day that i walk into work (and sometimes i really don’t want too in all honesty!) i walk out with a lesson. No matter how big or small. The stress is real, the demand is exhausting and sometimes i want to pull out my hair.. But i would do it all over again. I would have sleepless nights all over again in nursing school and choose to be a nurse all over again.. Because hey! sometimes i can even have a 5 day weekend! (It has its perks!)
So if you know a nurse or a nurse to be… say thank you! And to all my nurses out there. nurses Happy Nurses week!
A word of advice… stay humble.. because when we’re on the other side of our role.. when our families are sick or when we are sick ourselves.. we tend to think we know it all.. but we don’t. We sit back and let others teach us more. We know the good and the bad of it.. So be kind when you can.. stand your ground when you have too and ask for help when in need.
My journey of becoming a nurse! Enjoy!
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love this jenny! thanks for sharing your heart and for hanging in there through the hard times and good times. you’re an exemplary nurse and i hope to be just like you when i grow up :0)
thank you tere! that means a lot, and i know that you will be a wonderful nurse as well 🙂