Not Just Another Nurse

I always wanted to become a teacher so when I completed year twelve of my schooling I was looking for courses available , but somehow I was advised to take nursing as a course of study as it was a faster option for becoming a teacher . However to cut the long story short and ten years down the line with five of them and still going on as a nurse I don't regret one bit about my decision. Anyhow recently my brother finished his schooling and so I was looking up colleges where he can study some Arts courses but he kept on insisting that he wanted to study nursing. At first, I was hesitant and I told him it's not easy being a nurse .It's not something you can do unless you like it and enjoy it. But he kept on insisting , so I finally gave in and enrolled him in a nursing college.It took me two of my four years in nursing school to accept my chosen vocation after the initial shock of having experienced the hospital firsthand in the first year of my training. If I knew then what I now know about nursing , I wouldn't have opted Nursing as a career choice but thank God I didn't know . Like me ,after high school , many people do not know what exactly a nurse does other than giving injections. So let me elucidate some of the things we do and what nursing is about.

1. The First and the Last : Being a nurse I realised that we are involved in many the firsts and lasts of people who come to the hospital. Nurses are the first people you encounter inside the Emergency and the last one to see when you go home on being discharged. It is the nurse who is the first point of contact when you come in.Also having delivered babies in the labour room and given multiple death cares I can say that nurses are the people you see but don't remember when you are born and the last people who respectfully deal with you when you die in the hospital before your family comes in . So yes we see you in your problems , we see you go home safely ,we help bring you into this world and see that you depart this world with dignity and respect.  
2. Hawk Eye :  Having worked in the emergency and ICU/ITU, I can say that when things go downhill it happens in the blink of an eye .Nurses are the ones that have a hawk eye over the sick patient that is in their care . Once all has been said and done and the doctors have decided what they want to do after changing their orders over a gazillion time and left , it's the nurse in the ICU/ITU that has to keep watch over the vital signs to ensure you see another day. In other words ,we make sure your condition doesn't deteriorate on our watch and if it does we do everything we've got to bring you back to see another fight.
3. Body Fluids: Anything said about nurses is incomplete without body fluids ..It's almost synonymous. We've had vomits ,poops , urine, amniotic fluid , saliva everything being splattered at us and each time we grimace and do what we have to do. I believe nothing can gross out a nurse ,having seen it all, they can carry out a perfectly normal conversation about poop at dinner time with you provided you don't gag . Yea you can call it code brown or whatever colour you want but it's what we do: clean you when you are unable to ,move you when you aren't moving and feed you when can't yourself.
4. People : Last but definitely not the least , it's the people that we meet daily.People is what makes nursing different from other professions and each one is to be treated  in the same way as the other with dignity and respect irrespective of their cast , colour , creed or gender. Every day at work we meet different people , each with his/her own story , their problems and troubles People come to us at their lowest , when they are dependent on us especially when all their life they were fiercely independent.So we meet people angry , frustrated anxious and vulnerable .It is then that this job tests your character , your patience .Someone once said the character of the nurse is as important as the knowledge they possess. 

Nursing is a combination of skills and knowledge and character .So finally to conclude I would say that nursing is easy as long as it remains in the books but add a little uncertainty of life and an eclectic mix of people and their emotions then it becomes a different ballgame altogether.