nursing the profession

As all of you know, I’m currently in Melbourne studying to be a nurse so that I can come home in 2 years time to work in the Singapore system. When I’m feeling a little down and a little sian, I read this book entitled ‘A cup of comfort for nurses’ given to me by a friend when I left.

I love every story in that book, some more than others. but one particular one stands out. It’s entitled ‘A Hazard of the Trade’ by Jane Churchon a registered nurse in the U.S.

She writes:

“I am a registered nurse, work that awkwardly straddles the line between the blue and white collars of society. Nurses have a broad base of knowledge and skills. When hospitalised, a patient sees the physician three minutes a day and three or more nurses several times a day throughout their stay. We are intimately familiar with each patient’s disease and its treatment; medications and their effects, and personal preferences in everything from food to the height of their bed, the position of their pillows, room temperature, and TV programming. We clean the vomit, empty the bedpans and wipe their rear ends. We pull blood from their bodies and put it into their bodies, we interpret the results and we report what is significant to the doctor. It is important that we know what is significant and equally important that we let the doctor be the final judge of its significance, in our own finely tuned dance of power with the medical profession. We hold patient’s hands and sometimes we cry when patients can’t see us, but rarely when they can…

… part of our work is to encourage patients to believe in miracles; on the flip side, we must also help them to accept the inevitable. In a world of complex blood chemistry, chemotherapy and radiation, we employ words and clichés more at home in a boxing ring than in a hospital. We say, “you can beat it, and keep fighting!” we also encourage our patients to ‘let go’ and to know that ‘we all have on this moment.’ It is this type of double speak – the holding of hope in the same breath as the possibility of death – that creates wonderful actresses of most members of the profession.”

I’m a realist so this description of a nurse really moves me. This gives me a real description of what I’m entering into. I would lying to you if I said everyday was a bed of roses. Some days bring its joys while others its sorrow and self-doubt. And while I struggle with it, I know cognitively that many have gone before me. If they can so can I.

Can I do it? I believe I can but not by own strength but by God’s power. For in my weakness, His power is made perfect. (2 Cor 12:9)