Late night attitude of gratitude
A reading of Galatians 5, two journal writings and soft music later, and I'm still not sleepy. It's currently 10:46 PM. I guess my body is used to still being up for another hour or two. Thanks job. I'm off today (obviously) but I'm back on Saturday. Monday and Tuesday were pretty stressful and crazy. With the usual patient "neediness", a full moon, 3 discharges on Tuesday AND 4 admissions within an hour of each other, it's safe to say we were all feeling a wee bit edgy by the time night shift arrived. I'm pretty sure on Tuesday I was the only one who got my dinner break! Despite all the craziness, I still love what I do! I have no regrets. I walk into the doors every time I go into work not dreading what is to come, because I'm just so thankful that I am living my dream and working a job I love. I will never forget at one of my clinical rotations when I was on the Rapid Response Team. I was with a nurse who worked in a coronary care floor whose passion was to work with children on a pediatric unit. But for 10 years, she was working on this floor because she needed a job. She told me she wished she could leave and do what she really wanted. My response? "Well, what are you waiting for?" She didn't answer.
I feared that I would become "that" nurse. The Debbie Downer, the paycheck-to-paycheck nurse, the one with his/her junk on display for all to see and hear whether or not you wanted to, the one that dreaded coming to work, and the one whose stinky attitude infected everyone else. And I knew that if I was stuck somewhere where I really didn't want to be, I would become that. Probably not, but it did cross my mind a time or two when I was still job searching. Now? Nope. EVERYONE I have worked with loves what they do, they're involved, they help me out, and they do the absolute best that they can and gosh darn it we have each other's backs! I am so happy and blessed that I am not in a field where the nurses "eat their young." I've probably written something like this before, but it's true! Not to mention some of the patients I have had have been just an absolute joy to work with. Sometimes as a nurse I get caught up with the technicalities and FREAKING PAPERWORK that you just need to get away from it once in a while, listen to your patients, turn up the radio and sing along with them when "Wagon Wheel" comes on while waiting to go to dinner. When I walked out the door on Tuesday night, 3 of the patients that were leaving the next day said that they would miss me. One thanked me personally for taking "such good care of them." Had another patient ask me what my "problem" was. I asked what he meant. He said that I was very...energetic was the word I think he used. I said that I just have a very bubbly and happy personality by nature. He then stopped and said that he liked being around people like that.
Seriously?! You know, it's God. It really is. I was reading Ephesians 5 yesterday and one of the verses talked about being children of the light. My personality, the way I interact with these patients, boom. There's that light. It flickers for them, and they pick up on it. They notice. I tell people about the love of Christ I have in my life without even saying a word. That's not me being fake, that's faith! It's just faith and love; REAL love. Genuine and honest loving on people who need it the most. You know, as a Christian, it's what I was called to do. And I do it...for a LIVING. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, it's 11 now. I guess I should mosey onto bed. My eyes are starting to get a bit drowsy. Wiley is sacked out beside me. Ya'll, just be thankful for what you have. The people in your life, whether or not you know them. You may bless them with what you say or do, but sometimes they can bless you in ways you never would have imagined.
I feared that I would become "that" nurse. The Debbie Downer, the paycheck-to-paycheck nurse, the one with his/her junk on display for all to see and hear whether or not you wanted to, the one that dreaded coming to work, and the one whose stinky attitude infected everyone else. And I knew that if I was stuck somewhere where I really didn't want to be, I would become that. Probably not, but it did cross my mind a time or two when I was still job searching. Now? Nope. EVERYONE I have worked with loves what they do, they're involved, they help me out, and they do the absolute best that they can and gosh darn it we have each other's backs! I am so happy and blessed that I am not in a field where the nurses "eat their young." I've probably written something like this before, but it's true! Not to mention some of the patients I have had have been just an absolute joy to work with. Sometimes as a nurse I get caught up with the technicalities and FREAKING PAPERWORK that you just need to get away from it once in a while, listen to your patients, turn up the radio and sing along with them when "Wagon Wheel" comes on while waiting to go to dinner. When I walked out the door on Tuesday night, 3 of the patients that were leaving the next day said that they would miss me. One thanked me personally for taking "such good care of them." Had another patient ask me what my "problem" was. I asked what he meant. He said that I was very...energetic was the word I think he used. I said that I just have a very bubbly and happy personality by nature. He then stopped and said that he liked being around people like that.
Seriously?! You know, it's God. It really is. I was reading Ephesians 5 yesterday and one of the verses talked about being children of the light. My personality, the way I interact with these patients, boom. There's that light. It flickers for them, and they pick up on it. They notice. I tell people about the love of Christ I have in my life without even saying a word. That's not me being fake, that's faith! It's just faith and love; REAL love. Genuine and honest loving on people who need it the most. You know, as a Christian, it's what I was called to do. And I do it...for a LIVING. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well, it's 11 now. I guess I should mosey onto bed. My eyes are starting to get a bit drowsy. Wiley is sacked out beside me. Ya'll, just be thankful for what you have. The people in your life, whether or not you know them. You may bless them with what you say or do, but sometimes they can bless you in ways you never would have imagined.
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