I am a Nurse

I love my job. I like to be needed and make people feel better. Even little things, such as providing a cold, glass of water for my patients can make someone’s day and put a smile on my face. It really does not take much to show someone you care.

The reason for this post is because I wanted to encourage others that it really does not take a medical degree to help someone or show them that you care.

I went to school for nursing about 6 years ago as a mature student. School was very stressful since the expectation is to have an above 80 percent passing average. School was very competitive and licensing very challenging.

There was a lot of reading necessary to obtain a general understanding of all of the intricacies of all of the biological processes of the body. Clinical was another important class where we worked in a lab designed to be a hospital setting outfitted with dummies where we perform our medical interventions and skills while being evaluated by clinical professors. All of these things had a set of rules that were very defined, which noted specific problems with patients and specific interventions to be performed in a specific manner. If the interventions were performed per the specific sequence taught, we were given a check-mark, “passed.”

I will give you an example; we were taught the simple task of handwashing:

1. Turn on tap
2. Wash hands for an entire 15 seconds (anything less is a fail). Sing happy birthday since this is about the same length as 15 seconds
3. Keep tap running and gently pull down a piece of paper towel
4. Dry hands starting from hand down to your elbow
5. Do not scrub, only pat dry
6. Do not have arm going up (instant fail)
7. Do not go up arm after hands have been patted dry (fail)
8. Shut tap off with the paper towel
9. Discard paper towel in the garbage

If all these steps were each completed in said manner while having your evaluator standing by your side monitoring your every move, you passed. Every situation with a patient required four moments of handwashing:

1. Before seeing patient
2. Before aseptic procedures
3. After bodily fluid exposure risk
4. After work with patient is finished

I am telling you all this because I want you to see that in the non-real world, the practicality of nursing is kind-of a joke. We are taught to be a perfectionist to uphold a level of care equaling no less than 100%. In school, there is no consideration of what the real, chaotic world is like.

Stay with me a little longer since I want to apply this idea with how we interpret the Bible.

I feel I am a very good nurse. Not only did I get through the grueling, impossible, expectations of school with honour-role standings, I also obtained a general-level understanding of the theory behind what nursing is. My point is though; what I believe makes me the nurse I am today is because I understand that it is not only necessary to have theory knowledge. What makes me a good nurse is that I also have a good sense of intuition to rely on. It takes both theory and intuition to be good at something. One cannot be successful in being book-smart alone.

Intuition is something school does not teach you.

The real world is not black and white; the real world is a mesh of black and white. Every day, every person, and every situation is different. I never know what I am going to get.

Any medical unit is going to have its own stresses ~ you never know what will come flying at you as you walk down the hall to see your next patient. Every patient has their own unique medical situation, personality, and choice in how they want to be dealt with.

The expectation is not to be robotic. I cannot tell my patient to hold off on that heart-attack a little longer whilst I stand there and perform my four moments of hygiene, nevertheless, sing happy birthday while doing it.

So, here’s the point. It is important to be book knowledgeable; however, it is more important to have a caring heart. To be genuine with people is the expectation. Being genuine is working with the best of your knowledge and also seeking to be knowledgeable in whatever your job is. Do and be your best while being honest.

We can be Biblically smart and rhyme of scripture till we are blue in the face (but please don’t do that); yet the truth is we really just need to be kind, loving and genuine people. Kindness is universally recognized.

You don’t have to be a nurse or a Biblical scholar to know God, to do your job well or to be there for someone in need.

You just have to want to be a good person.

Jew and Gentile

To the Jew and to the Gentile;

The Son goes to the Gentiles

While the Jews continue on their journey

A break up happened

Two halves of a whole

God the Father

Jesus the Son

Seeing the resemblance

But two separate identities

Coexisting

In mutual unison

Two minds

A goal

Both halves making up a whole

Completes a story

Revealing the One

.

Feature image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay