Her instant response was, "All my friends were becoming nurses. We all went into nursing together."

I was so terribly sorry to hear that. It is enough to make anyone who considers the implications of that statement weep.

It would be so much easier if they were marked from the beginning. Nothing big or fancy. Perhaps just a discrete little cursive 'N' which has been tattooed on their hip when they slip from their mother's womb.

Please allow me to explain. First of all, nursing is not, nor was it ever, a 'job'. All one must do to prove that is to look at the lives of such as Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale or even Jane Hull. In fact there are those, present company included, who have trouble thinking of it as a 'profession' at all, because to them it is a calling. A high calling of the first order. If you say "I work as a nurse", then I have nothing but sorrow for you, as well as those with whom you will come into contact. Excuse me for bringing it up this way or sounding "preachy", but it is as much a calling as that which one might receive to the ministry. For the same reasons. Like a minister/rabbi/priest, on a daily basis, the nurse, unavoidably, deals with life and death directly. It is not just "part of the job". Seen in its proper perspective, it is the whole job. Please pause to consider that a nurse, even more than a physician , is oft times the only linking bridge between the person in need and the rest of the world.

Perhaps an explanatory comparator would be of assistance at this point. In the service we had the same 'calling vs. job' attitude towards the Chaplains. We could tell instantly which ones were called to the service of their God and which became ministers so that they could ride out the war with rank , power, and privilege while still being able to validly say that they 'served'. These latter were called 'sky pilots'. They were shown respect only a s necessary and they were avoided where/whenever possible. Just in case the reader might be interested, the 'sky pilot' terminology is nothing new. We of the Vietnam generation did not originate the term 'sky pilot'. So has it been for decades. Since WW-II or before. The called and dedicated versus the cold and calculating.

PROPOSITION: Instructing in what to do because one is a nurse is comparatively easy. How to be a nurse can never be successfully taught.

Instruction in how to take B/P readings, give injections, react in 'code' situations is a matter of general course. But can one teach how to comfort a patient who is in a state of absolute terror being of the opinion that s/he may not live the night? To deal with an 8-12 year old child who has just been brought into the E/R from a horrific traffic accident, not only pretty well banged up themselves but now totally orphaned and fully aware of that fact. Perhaps 'the moves' can be taught but I defy anyone to convince me t hat they can teach compassion or how to say the necessary words in as comforting a way as possible. After all, we now have robots which perform brain surgery far more deftly than any surgeon ever dreamed could be done. Can that same robot be programmed to plump a pillow, comfort that patient, or hold the hand of that child in a validly reassuring and effective manner? 'Scu se me. I think not!

And before anyone accuses the writer of describing some big pushover softy, think again. That nurse can also be 'tough as nails' when the occasion calls for it. Difference is that the 'called' know when and how to do that. Of ten has the writer kidded that most of the nurses he knew stood 7'9", weigh ing in at 450 pounds, with one eye in the middle of her forehead and steel teeth. It is just some gentle teasing. They know what I am saying. You see, the next line in that piece is that irrespective of the 'steel teeth', if the writer were in the hospital and something bad happened, that nurse is the first one that he would want to see rolling through that room door. Tough because sometimes, when you gotta, you gotta, but always knowing when, how and how much.

If in answer to the question "What do you do?" you can truthfully answer, " I am a nurse", then please stand very straight and tall as you say it.

And may a gracious and loving God as well as the souls of your predecessors rise to bless you. Your patients surely do.

Opinion Piece # 24

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