What do I do....

There is a link-up floating around the blog world with a topic for each day of May.  This is the first day that I have participated, but I thought it would be a good day to start since it is nurse's week and the topic is "What do I do".

When I think about my career, where I am, how I got there, what I hate the most, what I love the most...the list could go on and on, but basically I AM A NURSE...however to me, it is so much more.

When I am getting ready for work I often wonder how my night is going to go.  Will I have a super sick patient and run around like crazy for 12 hours, will I have a needy patient or family that will be on the call light every 5 minutes, will I have a dying patient that just wants me to sit in silent prayer with them, will I have a patient that will eventually become someone I look forward to seeing every day I come to work...you just never know what you are going to get...some nights are better than the night before, and some nights you wish you would have called in.

For me, my job is holding the hand of a dying patient that doesn't have family as they take their last breath, recover an open heart patient from the OR while explaining all the lines and tubes to their family, hugging the 14 yr. old girl that is losing her dad to brain death while trying to explain to her how many people he will help by making him a donor, helping the young adult realize how much they have to live for and to not give up, being an ear to listen to a mother as she sits at the bedside of her child that is on life support after an overdose, giving silent prayer to the family that can't get along when their loved one is critically ill, teaching the young man about having a heart attack.

For me, my job is cheering for the patient that passed gas, giving praise to the open heart patient that is walking for the first time after surgery, encouraging a patient to push themselves even though it's painful, teaching a patient things about their disease that they never knew, praying with a patient, making sure that my patient has the best care they have ever received, learning something new every day that I go to work, looking forward to going to work, sitting in church every week and praying for the patients, staff, and family members that I encounter, dreading the holidays and weekends because I have to work and miss time with my family.

But it is more...
It is so much more...
More than I can physically type...
More than I can think about at this moment...
More than I can express on this blog...

My career has made the person that I am today.  I have learned about myself, other people, life, heart ache, happiness, and most of all compassion.  I often wonder...would I be as caring as I am today if I didn't chose this profession...would I be satisfied with life if I wasn't a nurse...would I love my job...

There are many times I wonder what I would be doing if I wasn't a nurse, and I can not think of one thing that I would rather do than be a NURSE!!!