The Gifts of Nursing

What a great article!My biggest gift came many years ago when I was the night charge in a level one trauma center. I answered the phone and it was the mother of a pt I had cared for earlier in the week. Her 6 week old daughter came in as a full arrest and was pronounced shortly after arrival. The mother thanked me thru her tears for wrapping her baby in a warm blanket and providing a rocking chair for her to rock her one more time. To this day, that memory really stands out for me when I like millions of other nurses, I just considered it "part of the job." We do make a huge impact in some of the most unlikeliest places.

I don't save lives but I have a sense of accomplishment and cool human interactions everyday in home health care. Along with a great schedule (except now during EMR transition LOL) and a commensurate income.

Being a Peds nurse for most of my career has allowed the gifts of resiliency as well; my most recent experience of being a supervisor in Sub-Acute/LTC engaging with older adults in their period of loss of function, or those past missteps regain self confidence and empowerment; it has helped evolve my nursing practice to recognize nurses as life-coaches, healing mangers in the process of patient care; that is a gift that nurses can harness and transcend in any specialty, and it is very empowering!

I'm a home health RN with 13yrs in almost all the hospital floors andv2 yrs of home health I had a patient who was 97 yrs old. He had macular degeneration, and very HOH. Best thing is he's a retired preacher. Every visit I learned something new about his life. I learned a lot from him. Every visit, he had a lesson from the bible that he taught to me. I consider this to be a great gift. No material object can add up to what he has taught me.

Quote from Libby1987I don't save lives but I have a sense of accomplishment and cool human interactions everyday in home health care. Along with a great schedule (except now during EMR transition LOL) and a commensurate income.