Happy Nurses Week

I'm feeling very lucky this week to have an amazing out-of-the-house job, in addition to my mommy-ing job. This week I've felt extra appreciated at work, mostly in the form of edible gifts (pizza, coffee, cake, muffins, etc.), because it's nurses week!!! The doctors, management, PTs, OTs, patients and their families have all been super kind to us this week. It's really nice to feel recognized for doing what can sometimes be a very challenging job. It's a job that I love because it makes me think. It's not a job you can do on auto-pilot, it is so much more than just following orders blindly. I really do learn something new everyday. For me the real challenge comes in the emotional toll it can take. We as nurses are welcomed into the most vulneralble moments in a patient's life. From learning about terminal diagnoses, to witnessing the very first or very last breaths our patients take. We often see something in a patient that causes us to become attached, I'm sure we've all shed a tear over patients and their families who've touched us some how. We do things for our patients that most people would never want someone else to have to do for them. We are most often thanked for our work, but ask any nurse and she/he will be able to tell you stories of those patients who do not appreciate what we do for them. We get hit at, spit at, called every name in the book, we get peed on, puked on, and yell at. But we come back day after day to do this job that gives immense satisfaction in the knowledge that what we do is important. We save lives. We care. We are nurses.