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If I use all the jargon of nursing but do not unerstand what is touching my patients hearts, then all I do is chatter when I talk nursing. Even though I have some advanced training in wound care, run an assisted living, am knowledgeable about qi/qa and am an excellent MDS nurse, if I do not have compassion for the residents/patients then all my endeavors are hollow. I can impress my peers with my wordiness and seem like an intellectual with my information junky side, but then if I do not offer MYSELF to my residents/patients then what I do is just plain activity. Part of who I am is a nurse and I am devoted to that and even forfeit personal desires (time, money, and sometimes respect from Dr.'s and other nurses.) If I become cynical and detached and fatigued to the point of indifference then all my energy is expended in futility. I try to put the science and art of nursing together in an effort to achieve "professional" status, something nurses have been working on for some time now. But I still need to notice my resident's/patient's broken heart and dreams or my mission is in vain. Faith hope and love, these are the cravings of the human spirt and the greatest of these is love. We know that don't we? If our status as a nurse is not allowing us to be this kind of nurse then maybe it is time to move on.