Get a ROOM!

I have told all of you readers before that I am a nurse.

Well, I've studied 4 years working hard, sharpening my knowledge, and developing my skills in order for me to become the best nurse that I can be. I have handled and cared for human lives - things that we are really really willing to care for. Every second of our lives, fear has been striking our minds and hearts, as these lives that we care for may be lost at any second, even with the highest possible care we can give. And when someone does pass away in our hands, the guilt of not being able to make that patient live longer may stay long - or even forever in our memories.

That's how hard being a nurse is.

Source

Not just that. We stayed for four years in the academe. We have studied several subjects that will later on be applied to our future profession. We studied several medicines and disease processes (some of which we might not encounter in the future), have endured the sleepless nights, the difficulties of being a nursing student, the almost-everyday exams, the stress of submitting requirements, working in night and graveyard shifts fulfilling our duties of being a student nurse, and most of all, the grim fact that we might not get a decent job in the future.

Actually, I don't really like telling people how hard and how precious the nursing profession is - it's probably because I respect that everyone in this country, moreover, this world, has an individual contribution and a role in the society. Be it a doctor, a lawyer, a farmer, a senator, or even a president - we have our own roles to play, and we live side-by-side to make things work for all of us. There is neither a superior nor an inferior job. And because of that, I think that we should start by respecting each other's roles.

But someone is starting to forget how to respect others'.

Yes, we care for patients. We handle the things that not everyone can. We bathe our patients, we help them groom themselves, we change their clothing, we clean their urinals, we change linens, etc. And that we do - keeping the complaints in ourselves, and in the end, we still smile to patients even though we sometimes work for free, or for a little sum of money. 

However, those things are just a percentage of what we nurses do.

We may seem dirty and lowly following doctors' orders, cleaning bedpans and urinals, bathing patients, cleaning secretions from almost everywhere - if we won't do that, who will? We care for you as if we care for our own family, but actually, we even care better to patients as compared to our own.

Like everyone in this society, we also have a mighty role to fulfill, and this role we need to fill requires high amounts of knowledge, skills and attitude. If someone thinks that we nurses don't need good schooling, then we should just start imagining about a world without good and knowledgeable nurses - wrong medications being given to a patient, improper handling of the bedridden, wrong reading of vital signs, and gravely disrespectful staff. But these, we do not do, for we have been taught in our school to do what we are expected to do.

We are nurses. And if you want to consider us ROOM NURSES, then please do so. Belittle our profession as you please. But we still stand proud - we are proud that through us nurses, several people, or even you, still live to be with their families, and live to fulfill the "role" they have been entrusted upon.

PROUD NURSE ako ma'am. PROUD ROOM NURSE (sabi mo nga.)