There was a girl who wrote her own monologue, her name was Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson “Nurse Kelly” she made a statement that spun around the globe like a lightning flash. She brought nurses to their feet cheering for her screaming hell yes. She was the voice that so many of us as nurses don’t have. When Kelly stated, “I am a nurse and that’s my talent.” I instantly loved her.
Tonight as I clicked on the link to renew my nurse’s license that I have had for 28 years. I thought about the wonderful monologue spoken from a platform that had millions of people’s attention. She spoke about the patients she loved and her passion shined brighter than the lights on the stage.
I retired my nursing job in December 2014. I walked out the door that day and never turned around to look back.
I couldn’t.
I would have cried.
I was walking away from friends that I have had over 25+ years. Patients that I have known for 25+ years. Both of them changed the person that started working at that hospital drastically.
A friend of mine and I were making light of the “Doctor Stethoscope” comment because she had posted a picture of her in her scrubs headed to work with it dangling from her neck. She ask me if I remembered a certain doctor that we had to call during the night when we had admissions come in – and he always hung up on us. Knowing we had to call him. He threw charts in his little fits of rage, cursed the nurses and had the nerve to ask a coworker who was charting to get out of her chair so he could sit down.
It brought back so many memories of how you are treated as a nurse. If you have been to nursing school – you know it is hell. We have to study lots of material, remember how to think on your feet, read lab slips and know what they mean, laugh with a patient and resuscitate another one.
I had a doctor throw a chart at me because the lab results were not back yet. I had no control over how fast the lab was – but he threw it at me. I dodged the chart and it crashed against the wall, the notebook rings spilled all the contents all over the hall. The young nurse that I was, full of sarcasm stated, “Wow you have a mess to clean up” and left to go take care of my patients.
I can’t count how many families would come to visit patients and ask when the doctor would be in. It was late afternoon when I went on shift – so it was rare to see a doctor in the building at those hours. The family would say I don’t want to talk to a nurse I want the doctor. The doctor signed the papers for them to come and go but the true caregiver and middleman were the nurses and the assistants.
The phrase “You’re just a nurse” rings in a nurse’s ears like a fist to the face.
When Joy Behar’s “The View” made her comments – I am sure she had no idea how the profession of nurses was about to #nursesunite. To see our profession on the national news media getting the grand attention it deserves, I have to admit felt pretty darn good.
As a nurse I have met some amazing people, some I never wanted to see again, some that broke my heart and I cried with them, for them, held the hands of the brand new mom, and the dying with no family. I have seen death and life from both ends. I worked with mental illness that would make your heart so sad to see how sick some were and knowing that the “good” we saw was their best – the one the world didn’t understand, the one we were so proud to see. I have hugged so many strangers that we called patients. I had the privilege to share in their healing care, to watch them progress from sickness to going home.
I miss nursing. (some of it)
I miss my nursing friends – who have that sick sense of humor that carried us through the bad nights – so we could laugh together as a team on the good nights.
What I do know.
You will not find a more willing person to help someone they do not know than a nurse.
They get very little pay for the many jobs they do.
They get very little attention as the caregiver which makes the stay away from home tolerable.
I miss laughing with my patients and hearing their stories. I miss seeing them smile when they receive doctor’s orders to go home. I miss the hugs that said, “Thank you.”
After I retired from the hospital to work from home with my home business where I could help people on a different scale of healthcare. I was doing ok not working as a nurse….until… my husband and I went to the movie and an older lady who had several steps to walk up to get to her seat paused by my chair and said “Can I hold onto your chair?” I said, “No but you can sure hold my hand” she patted me twice, and grabbed my hand as I gave that lift for the step up. She paused on the landing and “Thank you.” I smiled back and said, “No, Thank you.”
I am not just a nurse… I am a lifesaver.