Honestly non-medical professionals who give nurses all kinds of shit on Tumblr for things they know nothing about are trash and I would love for them to just spend two hours as a nurse and see what the fuck it’s like. Go ahead and tell me I’m a terrible nurse, I fucking dare you.
I just wanted to say a genuine thank you to all of my nurse (RN, LVN, LPN) colleagues around the world.
Thank you for delivering babies because the MD couldn’t get there in time… thank you for holding the crying son whose mother just took her last breath… thank you for changing the immobile elderly man’s brief and treating him with dignity… thank you for overtime… thank you for taking call… thank you for coming in on your day off to help out your colleagues … thank you for helping out the newbie nurse who is completely overwhelmed… thank you for putting on a smile and providing compassionate care even when you’re exhausted, frustrated, or disappointed… thank you for coming in for class after class with technology and equipment updates and mandatory education… thank you for having really uncomfortable conversations with patients, physicians, families, and support systems because sometimes the most caring thing we can do for someone is to just say no.
Thank you for having that perspective. Thank you for your bottom line: your patient’s wellbeing. Thank you for putting that first, before all else… before your own ego and personal opinion, before that of others… no matter how ridiculous, gross, insulting, emotional, wonderful, terrible, or sad the situation… thank you for prioritizing your patient before all else.
With so much stuff around taking care of patients (politics, long and grueling hours, dwindling budgets, ratios, red tape, constantly evolving requirements to even be allowed to be at the bedside) - thanks for with dealing all of that to provide nursing care.
So, even if your hospital or boss didn’t provide a Nurses Week celebration for you, I just want to take a moment to tell you that you are valued. You are important. You are needed. You are a nurse. It is my honor to call you colleague. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
