I'm JUST a nurse!

[hapeewendy]

next time you hear the word just and nurse in the same sentence feel free to recite this word for word - its by Suzanne Gordon author of from silence to voice - what nurses know and must communicate to the public :

I'm just a Nurse

I just make the difference

between life and death

I'm just a nurse

I just have the educated eyes that prevent

medical errors, injuries and other catastrophes

I'm just a nurse

I just educate patients and families about how

to maintain their health

I'm just a nurse

I just make the difference between dying in agony

and dying in comfort with dignity

I'm just a nurse

I'm just the real bottom line in healthcare

I'm just a nurse

I just make the difference between pain

and comfort

I'm just a nurse

I just make the difference between healing

coping and dispair.

I'm just a nurse

I just work in a major teaching hospital

managing and monitoring patients who are involved in cutting edge experimental medical or nursing

research

I'm just a nurse

I'm just a professor of nursing who

educates future generations of nurses

I'm just a nurse

I'm just a long term care nurse who makes the difference between staying in ones own home and

going to a nursing home

to all the student nurses

don't you want to be "just a nurse" too?

[Christel2Rn]

I'm not sure if anyone has read these 2. They were given to all the nurse graduates at a dinner welcoming us to the hospital.

[Christel2Rn]

I AM NURSING

I AM NURSING!

I am a metaphor. A dichotomy. I am different things to different people. I am enigmatic and incisive. I am female. I am male. I am prestigious and defamed; simplistic and complex. I am a profession; a job.

I AM NURSING!

I am special. In this atmosphere of shortage and crisis and discontent and negatives, let's stand up and shout to the world: Hooray for NURSING! Let's rekindle that special feeling - that incredible pride - that multi-faceted gem which frequently loses it's brilliance, often needs polishing but never decreases in value.

I AM NURSING!

I am overworked and underpaid. I am too often tired but refreshed by a patient't smile - a thank you, a clutching hand.

What other profession encompasses the strengths and rewards of NURSING? We are primary care and tertiary care and family centered care and team work. We are wellness care and sickness care. We are prevention and education and rehabilitation. NURSING is caring for people...in hospitals, in homes, in extended care facilities, in mental institutions, in the communtiy. We are all people: yound and old and rich and poor, all colors, all creeds. From our first breath of life until our last, NURSING is there. We are all encompassing and all-important.

I AM NURSING!

I observe, assess, listen, monitor, hear, feel, manage. I heal. I care. Our existence is centerd around caring withing a heavy framework of knowlege and skill. I am NURSING! I am kind heartedness; I am humanity. I am human!

No one ever told us it would be easy. No one ever promised that the caring would not always be effortless and would often lose its luster. The nursing ideals, principles and philosophies we learn and practice with such wonderful enthusiasm and gusto do not prepare us for the intimidating all too frightening reality of nursing. We are life; we are death. And we are everything in between.

I AM NURSING!

I am sensitivity, compassion, empathy, tenderness, and caring. I am a baby's first lusty cry. I break fevers and dry tears. I am the faith of a cancer patient, the hope of the incurable, the love of the forsaken, the dignity of the dying. NURSING is watching progress and knowing that my knowledge, my skill, my exquisite ingenuity helped make it all happen. To perform the miracles of technology; to know disease. To touch. To teach. To heal. To smile. To hug. To NURSE>

I AM NURSING!

I am frustration, Hostility, Disillusionment, Despair, Defeat, Love-Hate, Weariness. I am Highs and Lows; I am 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I am Utter Fatigue and Ultimate Tears. I am Pride and Humility. I am Satisfaction and Malcontent.

I AM NURSING!

My very own rainbow. My own colors. My sunshine. My rain.

I AM NURSING!

I make a difference. I grow. And I celebrate being a NURSE!

By Dorothy A. Burtch, RN

Grace Hospital, Detroit, MI

[Christel2Rn]

Being a NURSE means.......

You will never be bored.

You wil always be frustrated

You will be surrounded by challenges.

So much to do and so little time.

You wil carry immense responsibility

and very litle authority.

You will step into people's lives

and you wil make a difference.

Some will bless you.

Some will curse you.

You will see people at their worse ~~

and at their best.

You will never cease to be amazed

at people's capacity for

love, courage, and endurance.

You will see life begin~~ and end.

You wil experience resounding triumphs

and devastating failures.

You will cry a lot.

You wil laugh a lot.

You will know what it is to be human

and to be humane.

By Melodie Chenevert

[JAYNE DANCE]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sharann, BSN, RN]

Nell, Suzanne Gordon wrote it.

[Love-A-Nurse]

originally posted by christel2rn

being a nurse means.......

you will never be bored.

you wil always be frustrated

you will be surrounded by challenges.

so much to do and so little time.

you wil carry immense responsibility

and very litle authority.

you will step into people's lives

and you wil make a difference.

some will bless you.

some will curse you.

you will see people at their worse ~~

and at their best.

you will never cease to be amazed

at people's capacity for

love, courage, and endurance.

you will see life begin~~ and end.

you wil experience resounding triumphs

and devastating failures.

you will cry a lot.

you wil laugh a lot.

you will know what it is to be human

and to be humane.

by melodie chenevert

thanks, i have read this one before.

[live4today, RN]

Very nicely stated! :kiss

[mattsmom81]

Thanks everyone!! We all need these sweet little pick- me- ups sometimes...even if SOME PEOPLE think they're sappy!!

[Brownbetty]

I like, I like...and so true

[MQ Edna]

Wendy and everyone, I tripped over this when I came to Allnurse after a really rough morning, when I knew that "caring" was stepping over the line into "interfering". I now feel much better about myself. Thanks for sharing!