A simple reminder of why we do what we do, for everyone to reflect

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So I wanted to post this because I know how easy it is, with all of the chaos we experience on a daily basis, to forget OUR pledge as nurses..... How easy it is to sometimes lose that memory of what it was like first coming out of school when no leaf was left unturned and every patient was innocent until proven guilty haha. For the time when we were all "present" and were not there just to collect a paycheck, to put in the time, waiting on 1830 or 0630 so you could run to the elevator to get the heck out of there.

With this post I hope to bring back some of the morality and substance that we all once held so close and placed on the highest pedestal.... The void within us, filled by Nursing.

.....So, About Nurses:

Somebody asked: "So you're a nurse!? That's cool, I wanted to do that when I was a kid. How much do you make?"

The nurse' reply:

"How much do I make?"

I can make holding your hand seem like the most important thing in the world when you are scared. I can make your child breathe when they stop...I can help your father survive a heart attack.

I can make myself get up at 5am to make sure your mother has the medicine she needs to live.

I work all day to save the lives of strangers. I make my family wait for dinner until I know that your family member is taken care of.

I make myself skip lunch so that I can make sure that everything I did for your wife today is charted.

I make myself work weekends and holidays because people don't just get sick Monday thru Friday.

Today, I might save your life...

"How much do I make? All I know is, that I make a difference.

God Bless and thank you to all of the nurses out there MAKING a difference.

Specializes in Pediatric.

Cringing hard at your post, OP.

Skipping your own nourishment to chart on patient care isn't only unnecessary: it's illegal.

Most corporations take meal and labor laws pretty seriously.

Nurses that say they skip self care, etc for the greater good of a patient often overstate the importance of their role to their patient.

If you didn't go in to work tomorrow, your patients would all survive. Another coworker would be handling them.

You aren't God, and you probably have saved fewer lives than you think.

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Specializes in Surgical Intensive Care.

So this was an email that someone had printed out and laid down at the nurse' station and in some way it made my day a little bit better. It was only shared to bring joy to anyone who found it when read.

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So this was an email that someone had printed out and laid down at the nurse' station and in some way it made my day a little bit better. It was only shared to bring joy to anyone who found it when read.

I wish I could feel the same about that email. It's just that I perceive it as pompous self-importance and I don't find that inspirational. I will admit that it does rather grate on my nerves.

Anyway, I appreciate the sentiment behind sharing something that made your day better but you probably should have clarified in your OP that this wasn't your text.

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I think it was pretty disingenuous of you to not attribute this OP to the author, or at least state "author unknown" if that's the case. It sure looks like you tried to pass it off as your own. You didn't clear that up until you got bad feedback. I hope that was just an innocent omission on your part...

As for the content, I agree with many of the others. Self aggrandizement at best.

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Specializes in Unit Nurse.

While for the most part I still like nursing. I do it because my wife won't let me quit, and be a stay at home dad!

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

I've read this on Facebook many times. OP isn't claiming they wrote it I hope.

I can't even begin to address the many ways in which I disagree with your post.

I will say, however, that I do believe that I've read this before, with authorship claimed by someone else. Best be careful online if you're claiming that you wrote something that you did not. If you DID write this, I withdraw my suggestion.

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Talk about an overly dramatic Oscar-bait screen play. I cringed reading it and the thing is, I kinda knew I would just by reading the title LOL.

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I've read this on Facebook many times. OP isn't claiming they wrote it I hope.

Well, the OP didn't say anything to suggest that anyone else wrote it until someone else questioned the authorship ...

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I think we make a big mistake if we sacrifice our family for our job. Or our bodies (waiting to eat; waiting to pee).

Nursing gives me great pleasure in many ways but it also frustrates me in many ways.

I don't look at it as "my calling" but I am grateful I went back to school to become a nurse.

There are many times I've been in the position to help save a life. I appreciate that.

I work in hospice mostly now and I appreciate the privilege of being asked into someone's home to help at the end of their life.

But I won't put my family second (or third) to my job.

Employers can take advantage of that martyr outlook. And they do.

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Specializes in Psychiatric.

It's funny, in my job I don't call myself 'the nurse', I call myself the 'recovery coordinator'. Years of nursing training and I don't even use the term for myself. Probably because I'm being as pompous as that original post ;)

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Multiple posts deleted due to language (quoted deleted post). Thanks to the OP for sharing this inspirational piece.

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