Emergency nursing is a unique job indeed. I don't know that many other jobs have such a wide spectrum of dignified to completely indignified tasks. One moment we may be working with state of the art technology to help save someone's life - the next emptying a bedpan full of rank human waste. One moment holding an elderly lady's hand for emotional support - the next locking a voilently psychotic person's arms and legs to the gurney with lock and key restraints. (Oh, and don't forget the spit mask).
We empty trash and we mop floors. We serve coffee and we save lives. We are loved... and we are hated. We are thanked (every year or so) and we are complained at (every hour or so...). The only other job that seems to compare is my other fulltime job... Motherhood!
The thing I love and hate about this job is that we are literally servants of all. Our patients, their families, the doctors, and often each other. From the Christian perspective this is a beautiful thing, because the One we follow said of himself, "I didn't come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many."
So dear fellow nurses (and techs, we'd die without you!)... the next time you are scrubbing feces off of a deranged patients' feet, remember Jesus kneeling down to wash those of his disciples and know that you are walking in worthy footsteps indeed.
it is funny how you are drawn to helping professions because it is genuinely in your heart to love those who are in need, and how, on the job all the romanticism of helping others is taken away.... i am going through this a little right now as a residential counselor. keep up your heart. :)
ReplyDelete