The phrase/story below popped up in my fb memories today. It’s floated around social media for a few years, perhaps you’ve even read it before. I felt it needed a re-visit.
About NURSES:
Somebody asked: "You're a nurse?!? That's cool, I wanted to do that when I was a kid. How much do you make?"
The nurse replied: "HOW MUCH DO I MAKE?"...
I can make holding your hand seem like the most important thing in the world when you're scared...
I can make your child breathe when they stop...
I can make the right interventions to help your father survive a heart attack...
I can make myself get up at 5AM to make sure your mother has the medicine she needs to live...
I make myself work all day to save the lives of strangers...
I make MY family wait for dinner until I know YOUR family member is taken cared of...
I make myself skip lunch so that I can make sure that everything I did for your wife today is charted...
I make myself work weekends and holidays because people don't just get sick Monday thru Friday...
Today, I might save your life...
How much do I make? All I know is, I make a difference. - Author Unknown
I won’t get into specifics of my personal opinion of politics regarding nursing at this time in history nor the effects that the pandemic has had on nurses, because that is not what this blog is all about.
But What I will say, is this. I have been passionate & dedicated to my profession, but now I wonder what price my family has paid for that. All of the Holidays that I missed with my kids, my spouse, our families. The bedtime stories I wasn’t able to read. The “good morning sunshine” moments that I wasn’t able to sing because I was at work before the sun had risen. The afternoons I wasn’t in the kitchen when my kids ran through the door after school to show me their art work. The after dinner walks around the block or playing at the park until the street lights come on. I know all professions and careers must rob a bit of us from of children, but I don’t know another that chips away at a human heart and soul so frequently and consistently. Every person that I’ve encountered who was suffering or unwell, or the family member of someone who was suffering or unwell, no matter what the interaction or the outcome, has taken a little piece of me with them.
Does that make me weak? No. It makes me strong.
And I know that costly sentiment holds true for many nurses that I know… just few would say it out loud to strangers.
So, What I do know is this…
I will never make enough to get back of all of the things that I missed with my children and my husband…
nor will I ever make enough to give them back all of the pieces of me that may have been missing.
For that I am sorry.
So just cherish every moment.
Onward and Upward.
jj
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