Hug a Nurse, Hug a Nurse's Aid

I am a nurse. I have been feeling stretched thin and a little burnt out lately. The demands and stress of work have been at the forefront and I just wanted to remember why I am a nurse.

So much of nursing is about compassion. Nursing is hard work; often thankless work. If it weren't for compassion nursing would be near impossible. As trite as it sounds, so many of us go into nursing to help people and make a difference. We may gripe about hours, staffing, census, doctors, glitches in the overall health care system and so much more - but at our core, we are a group of nurturing, caring people who have chosen a noble career dedicated to helping others. In a nut shell, I suppose that is why I am a nurse.

I work with some really wonderful nurses and aids. We work on a busy unit with a high level of acuity and it is very demanding and stressful. For the most part, we all seem to get together and help each other out and I have to believe that what brings us together is our common concern and desire to provide our patients with quality care - even if it comes out sideways or gets lost in the bureaucracy of health care sometimes.

Sure, we all have a license to protect and outlined job descriptions that require us to perform certain duties - but to do what we do, day in and day out - that motivation has to come from somewhere deeper than just a piece of paper or policy dictating what we do. You have to care about others to do what we do; deeply care - on a truly selfless and altruistic level. That's what it takes sometimes.

I have seen our nurses and aids when their patience is pushed beyond their limits, go the extra mile. And the results are amazing; acts born out of true compassion. Often patients are too sick, families are too worried, and management too busy to appreciate it, but it doesn't go unnoticed. I notice. And I am impressed, encouraged and proud to work with them.

So... hug a nurse, hug a nurse's aid. We're good people - we care deeply and we work hard.

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