Coming Around Full Circle (or Why I Do What I Do)

Published Jun 3, 2011

300 Posts

Specializes in pediatric critical care.

I just spent the last two nighshifts in one of the busiest assignments I have had in years. Sweet baby boy, worried and heartbroken parents, a poor family caught in a horrible situation. I am physically and emotionally wiped out. The first shift I spent with parents and the mother's Aunt. I came in last night to meet Grandma, who had been frantically been trying to find a flight from the other side of the country while I was working so hard the night before. As the night went on, parents ran home to get some necessities, and Grandma and I chatted away while I ran my butt off. Grandma is also a PICU RN, and being at the bedside of her critically ill grandchild was a battle for her. The grandmother in her wants him to wake up, be normal, giggle, and curl up in her arms. The PICU nurse in her sees the situation is as dire as it could be. As we chatted, I learned she was originally from this area and now works as a travel nurse. As the conversation went on, we both suddenly realized that we know each other. I haven't seen her in more than a dozen years. She was a nurse for my baby girl, years ago, who had a genetic disorder and spent a great deal of time in another local PICU before she went to heaven. This woman remembered my baby girl, and me, all these years later. We both cried and hugged. We updated each other briefly on years gone by. This woman is one of the reasons I went to nursing school, one of the reasons I work where I do! And I told her so, and thanked her for everything she impressed upon my young, naive mind all those years ago. And then she said something that made it all seem right: "Years ago I took care of you and your baby, now you hold my Grandson's life in your hands. It has come full circle, and I TRUST YOU." Wow. Just wow.