The Grateful Nurse Speaks

Once again, thank you for your words of wisdom! I so agree with you on every level.

Thank you for another wonderfully-written and enlightening article, VivaLasViejas.Even when the sky appears to be falling, we have so much for which to be thankful.

I am so inspired with what you have written. Thank you for sharing this awesome piece.

Once I was working as a temp at a community hospital where I had been ICU/CCU/Stepdown charge before I went to grad school. Had a young man who was in awful heart failure-- I pushed the furosemide into his antecubital IV and I swear it took about half an hour to even get to his kidneys, and didn't work much even then. We were eight miles from a nationally-recognized heart transplant center, so I put a note in his chart (in the DOCTORS PROGRESS NOTES section...pretending I didn't know they didn't integrate all disciplines' notes like every real hospital in town, hehehe) outlining my assessment and mentioning that they could consider referring him for an eval for transplant. Caught **** for it...but the next time I was in the ICU at the university hospital, there he was...and diuresing and mentating much better now that he had an actual cardiac output from an actually functioning heart. Those are the moments we live for. Thanks, Viva, for reminding me.

I really enjoyed reading your article. I can so relate with you for I have been a nurse for 26 years and have seen many changes along the way. I absolutely love my job and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Thank you for your inspiring words!

I'm just getting started with nursing and it's a rocky start at that. I enjoyed your article. I have these kind of memories from the life I have led up to this point (nursing is my second career). Now my memories aren't all life saving (one is, though) but still I cherish the times that my life has made a difference to someone else. The Wally World jobs...my husband has been a retail manager now for 26 years. And, it's a tough profession as well. But, I remind him when we compare job stress that if he doesn't make the sale, no one dies! In nursing, if we screw up, the effect can be disasterous! I'm still coming to grips with the gravity of the nursing profession. I'm not sure I want to take on this level of responsibility at an age when I should be coming down the hill, so to speak.Still working that one out!

As always, thanks for reminding us of the reasons why we do this job. It is so intense, stressful, thankless, exhausting, painful...yet it is all worth it for the good that we can do.

Thanks, y'all. After the duck-nibbling kind of day I had today, I needed to return here and remind myself---again---that I really DO love my job. LOL

it was Wow!!!!! Thank you for a beautiful and wonderfully written article..

Uplifting article to remember we make a difference when we are in the trenches. Hope everything works out for you with your job!

I think you have missed you calling as an author,nursing needs talented writers to represent us nurses.

wow!!!! it was wow!!! What a wonderfully written article... thanks for sharing!