Job Title: ICU Registered Nurse
Organization: Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care Services
Education: Registered Nurse, Lewis and Clark College
Professional Affiliations: Christian Nurses Association
"I started nursing 40 years ago after the death of my father from cancer. His death caused me to switch tracks from school teacher to student nurse, despite having three small children. Today, I have no current colleagues who can relate to wearing a white hat or who experienced nursing before Velcro but that was nursing as I graduated. My four decades of practice have been primarily critical care, with some dabbling in emergency care as well as vascular access device placement. Halfway down the road I had to decide between putting more letters behind the RN and more numbers on my paycheck or continue to experience the satisfaction of being a game-changer in the lives of patients and family members. I chose to stay at the bedside caring for patients rather than auditing the auditors. I chose the experience of helping a psychotic veteran locate his best life experience that was lost in a scrambled PTSD memory. I preferred the experience of helping a family choke down their tears while singing at the bedside of their loved one as he passed from one life to another; only to see his eyes brighten and expression change to a smile at that final moment. It was an irreplaceable experience.
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Nurses are still irreplaceable. Not just for their skills but for their compassion and empathy.
Without demonstrating compassion, I would have missed these treasures in my life. There is no medicine, machine or procedure that can replace it. It would have been unbearable during the pandemic to have witnessed people dying alone, lost in drug-induced hazes, except that I was part of the bravery, empathy and compassion demonstrated by nurses."
'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it (compassion) to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’ Matthew 25:39-40
