Nursing Affirmation

Found on a table top littered with half-consumed cups of sub-par breakroom coffee, this list made a few of us smile and thus, I have decided to post it here to share.

Mmhm.

I am a nurse.

I have a bladder like a steel trap, an ever-moving mind like the cogs in a freshly wound watch, and the eyes of a hawk.

I know what it is share a parent's pain, an adult child's fear, a spouse's guilt and questioning when the end draws near.

I have struggled alongside cancer patients, fought with an army of nurses for broken trauma patients, and prayed for them to have just a little more time.

I believe in truth, justice, and keeping patient's NPO in spite of all whiney protests, attempts at sneaking Crunch n' Munch at 3am, and the all powerful pull of puppy-dog eyes.

I help those who cannot help themselves.

I believe coffee is a food group. I have single handedly figured out a way to main line chocolate. I believe sleep is for the weak.

I have born witness to the wonder of a first gurgling gasp of life and the majesty of the last whispering sigh of death.

I have acronyms for everything and codes for just as much.

My job gives a whole new meaning to the word "stress".

I am single handedly supporting the economy with my purchase of black inked pens because every doctor I work with "borrows" them daily.

I have held the hand of an "untouchable".

I have sung to children who are not mine and told jokes to the unconscious.

I have seen those who by all rights should die, live and those who by all rights should

live, die.

I am called a pit bull, a bull dog, a battle axe.

I have saved lives by asking the right question. I have saved lives by knowing the right answer.

I have told a confused individual no less than 154 times during the course of a shift, "Today is Wednesday. You need to stay in bed because you just had surgery." and managed to do so with a smile.

I have chased down disoriented, naked people streaking through the hospital corridors.

I have been christened with vomit, anointed with urine, and spackled with feces.

I manage to get my whites white.

I am amazing.

I believe the letters RN transform me into a super-hero and call lights are the bat signal.

I am a guardian, an advocate, a coach, a warrior, a teacher, a champion, a good listener and a ninja.

I laugh at the inaccuracies of medical television dramas.

I know what it is to be woken at 2 am to a squealing call pager.

I walk where Doctors fear to tread.

I am a nurse.