Nurses Amaze Me!

Nurses AMAZE me.

My family and I have been cared for by dozens, and I have enjoyed the privilege of working alongside hundreds. To be honest, I don’t know how they do it. Their private lives are no less complex and exhausting than ours. Yet they must navigate the unrelenting obstacles of physical and personal challenges while launching themselves upon the surging sea of their demanding profession. Only by compartmentalizing can they embrace their calling. Regardless of the situation at home, they promptly take shift report and step up to the bedside, filled with compassion and alertness, scanning for any sign of improvement or decline in their patients. 

Nurses tirelessly tend body, spirit, and soul with mercy and grace, armed not only with the latest research gleaned during their off-duty hours but also with experience compiled from years of toil and practice. Their daily routine is filled with the unpleasant, uncomfortable, and unmentionable. In a single shift, they will face adrenaline-filled crises with courage, calm, and competence. Then they must turn on a dime to cheerfully instruct and exhort convalescents on to good health. Afterwards, with still empty bellies and full bladders, they take a deep breath and walk into a room suffused with the fear and suffering of a new admission.

Woven throughout these hours of stress, hunger, and fatigue is the additional requirement to endlessly document their actions. Nurses are also expected to comply with a mountain of regulations while the specter of Press Ganey scores looms over them. As ridiculous as it sounds, a life may have been miraculously saved, but if the coffee was lukewarm, the entire experience may be thanklessly projected as a failure. 

When the end of shift finally arrives and belongings are gathered, they silently walk through the employee tunnel to their cars. Only then can the sorrows they have accumulated over the week be addressed as keys fall to the ground in the parking deck and blinding tears make it impossible to locate them. 

My friends, there are times when words are not enough, and this is one of them. If you are serving on the front lines as a nurse, my respect is boundless. 

Thank you for all you do. 

Kay O'Hara

4/30/2022