When a call light blinks, when a hand needs held, when the situation demands a particular type of compassion, our nurses are there. Millions of people come through the doors of our healthcare system every year, seeking care and healing. One by one, our dedicated team of men and women mend what hurts; both the pain they can see and the pain which they can’t. They listen and console and restore what’s broken.
Nursing is not a profession, it’s a call to serve. This week and every day we celebrate those who’ve devoted their lives to this selfless work.
I am a nurse
Written by Erin LaCross, Chief Nursing Officer, Parkview Regional Medical Center
I am a nurse.
How do I measure my impact? I can tell you the times that I know I have saved a life. I can tell you the room number, the location, the circumstances. That’s easy, because those are the big moments I can never forget, even if I tried. I know when I have saved a life, but how do I know when I have changed one?
As nurses, time and experience shape us. At some point, we begin to believe that we are life-changers only through the profound moments – the big moments. I would argue that no moment needs our presence any less than another. Our paths crossing with the people we serve is no mistake, no coincidence. Every moment is perfectly orchestrated and predetermined to shape us, and for us to shape others.
As we look back over a career of these connections, both profound and ordinary, we can see clearly the path we have taken in becoming who we are today. Like a constellation, we find our way again the moment we identify it.
There are no mistakes. We were made to change lives with every connection we make. With every new day, we are molded by the connections of yesterday, and we should be inspired by the connections we know we will make tomorrow. We are life-changers. In every moment.
How can I think of doing anything else? How can I think of being anything else? I am a life-changer. I am a nurse.
Happy Nurses Week to the thousands of Parkview nurses who are called to change lives, one moment at a time.
“Maybe this one moment, with this one person, is the very reason we’re here on Earth at this time.” – Jean Watson
