Composing my thought....

Because I'm a nurse, and I work weird hours, I often find myself awake much later than my dear hubby. Such is the case tonight, and for this reason I wanted to just mention an experience i had today and what it taught me.

I absolutely love my job. I feel privileged to take part in an extraordinary experience every shift, which most people only experience a few times in their life. However, I often have discouraging, difficult and long days attached to my position as well. I now and then get run ragged for 12 hours trying to keep my patients safe and cared for, while also trying to keep a mom, a dad, a baby and a doctor happy and having a good experience. It is a very emotionally and physically taxing job many days.

Yesterday was one such day. I was on my feet pretty much from 6 AM to 6:30 PM, feeling behind the whole day. I didn't have time for more than a cup of yogurt for breakfast, and got "lunch" at 4PM. Every time I had a patient deliver their baby, I was asked to report off on her to another nurse within minutes of the delivery and take a new labor patient. Even though I had just returned from a vacation, by the end of the day, I was ready for another one! The worst part of the day, however, was the overwhelming feeling that I hadn't had the time to be the best nurse I could have been for my patients. I had gotten the job done competently, sure, but I felt like the true healing connection that I am normally able to make with my patients had just not happened. I absolutely dreaded the fact that I worked again the following day.

What happened this afternoon at work, however, was a totally different experience, although it was not so terribly different of circumstances (minus the whole awful eating thing... gotta love having blood sugar). I went into work to find the floor actually very busy, which it stayed throughout my shift. I was again hopping back and forth from room to room, not really feeling like i had established any good relationships, despite trying. As I was saying goodbye to my patients before i left for the night, however, I had one woman take me by the hand and, with tears in her eyes, sincerely tell me thank you. She said that she appreciated my kindness and my empathy, and that she had felt safe despite being nervous because I stayed at her bedside and held her hand in the last minutes of her labor. It's amazing how my feelings of bad nursedome were completely extinguished with just that one comment.

I am amazed at how much one sentence from my sweet patient could change my whole paradigm of my job experience. I am so grateful for the people I come in contact with who understand the power of their words. I want to be more like that- I want to let people know when they touch my life for good. We all need encouragement in our lives, even for things that are our jobs- nurse, parent, spouse- each person needs to be shown a little extra love for the things they do. I just wanted to share that recent story and revelation :) And in the spirit of my new goal, thank you for reading :)