Happy Nurses Week!

“You only work 3 days a week” They said. “Your job is so easy” they said.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

Raise your hand if you’ve ever wanted to slap someone for saying the above statement🙋🏻‍♀️😂

Nurses week, you say?? Can we be transparent for a minute? or 30? Being a nurse is hard. Nurses are considered the backbone of the hospital and sometimes that’s a hard role to carry. Taking care of someone for 12+ hours every time you walk into a building is hard. When you become a nurse, you take an unspoken pledge to put the needs of yourself last. We’ll often find ourselves calculating how much time it’ll take to run to the bathroom AND get the patient in 301 an anti-nausea med before they throw up all over the room. Some days, we cry with and for the patient and some days we celebrate their success. Being a nurse means feeling every ounce of emotion in 12 hours and nobody ever knowing.

If you’ve ever had to be under the care of a nurse or find yourselves there in the future… be kind. We take on the emotions of 3-6 patients, their family and ourselves all in 1 day, because our emotions don’t turn off when we walk out the door. We take our patients home with us more than we will admit. You always hear, “leave your emotions at work and pick them back up the next day” … but any nurse will tell you it’s simply not possible. We care… we care SO much. We have an unspoken bond with every single patient we have the privilege of taking care of, even when we’re not there. 

The truth is, I live for being a nurse. I love my job, even on the ‘crazy, didn’t get to go pee for 9 hours, when’s the last time I ate, kind of days.’ I love my patients, including the “difficult” ones. If you’ve ever had me as a nurse, I’m likely making jokes and laughing. Making other people smile, especially in a dark time, is my favorite thing to do. ” The reality is at the end of our day, we get to go homeand recharge. God sure knew what he was doing when he gave nurses more than 2 days a week off…and for that… I am grateful. 

If you’re reading this… thank a nurse this week… and any healthcare provider for that matter. We do our job because we love what we do. Being a nurse is a calling that we all chose to answer. I couldn’t imagine my heart beating for any other profession. 

Nurses and CNA’s are superhero’s and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Happy Nurses Week to all of my fellow super hero’s, soon to be super hero’s and the doctor’s who couldn’t live without us (ALL of you) … we deserve it.