NURSES AND THEIR NOBLEST SERVICE TO HUMANITY

 FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

 

NURSES AND THEIR NOBLEST SERVICE TO HUMANITY

MAY 12 - INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY

 

A woman fits the bill well to be a nurse, although nowadays, they are capable of even tough, complex and complicated tasks too. Why? Naturally and instinctively clothed with the positive attributes like patience, persuasion, persistence, perseverance, and paramount performance, and a unique blend of key traits, including a rare mix of punctuality, affability, care and attention, considerateness, concentration, sympathy, compassion, empathy, effective communication skills, attention to even minute details of the diagnoses made, the medical therapy/interventions recommended and drugs prescribed, emotional resilience and stress management, adaptability and flexibility, medical ethics and integrity, physical endurance and mental balance, continuous learning, ardent desire to keep themselves updated and upgraded on the trendy developments taking place and on the anvil in the medical world, teamwork and collaboration and always ready and willing to take any new responsibility, etc. that single out women for the nurse job. Thus, the nursing  community has become the most-sought-after healthcare workforce across the globe. An experienced nurse is an asset and almost half a doctor who can take good care of the patient(s) she serves. Collectively, they form one of the strong pillars in healthcare sector.

 

Out of ignorance and innocence, we had prejudicially identified and earmarked certain areas only for women, like teaching, nursing, and hospitality, assuming that their capacity is limited. This is a myth bubble. Today, women are second to none and are entering any field, including those that society thought were the exclusive male domains. It’s heartening that our women, breaking the glass ceiling, have made inroads and much headway into hitherto uncharted avenues, and have been giving their best performance in diverse fields which one would not have even dreamt of in the past. The scenario has now drastically changed with women participating in large numbers  and contributing their best in all fields.

Nurses are a unique kind. They have the insatiable yearning and unquenchable craving to take care of others, especially the patients (mostly in hospitals), which is their greatest strength and commitment. Every time a patient they treated recovered and is sent back home, they get the fullest satisfaction along with boundless joy.

It's not necessary to elaborate on the whole gamut of the work profile of a nurse here.

 

Nurses are the heart of healthcare. A praiseworthy remark on a nurse runs as follows: Save one life, you are a hero. Save 100 lives, you are a nurse.

 

Needless to say, caring is the essence and sine qua non of nursing, and the nurses accomplishing their job well are the angels and saviours of the patients. It is no exaggeration that the nurse who attended the patient in a critical condition would be too happy at his/her full recovery, but would be too grieved like the kith and kin, if at all the negative inevitable happens. The interest and emotions the nurses show for their patients in silence would be unmatched. With their presence around, one can feel the positive vibes.

Needless to say, Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 - 13 August 1910) - The Lady with a Lamp - is a role model for the existing as well as upcoming generations of nurses.

Mother Teresa’s observation, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless,” is not just laudable but worth emulation by generations of nurses aspiring to touch the horizons in their service.

 

Val Saintsbury would say, “Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring even without a prescription.” That is their love for humanity and humaneness to the core. Nurses are truly a privileged class who command respect as they treat the pains and pangs of their patients - a noble service indeed!

 

The irony is that while a nurse attending on a woman with labour pain will be able to see the birth taking place, unfortunately, they may, sometimes, have to see a patient sinking and taking the breath before death. Thus, they maintain their mental equilibrium and go ahead with their job as ever, sincerely and earnestly, irrespective of positive or negative results. For them, whatever happens, the show has to go on. This proves their mental stability to proceed further through ups and downs.

 

A well-trained and well-caring nurse is one of the greatest blessings to humanity, taking the place of even a doctor at times. In fact, a nurse boosts the self-confidence of the patient, enabling his/her to bounce back health-wise, taking solace and inspiration from the soothing words of the nurse rather than the treatment of the doctor. Though it may appear surprising, it’s only true.

 

Former U.S. President Barack Obama once praised the nurses thus, “America’s nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.”

On a lighter note, we can define a nurse as ‘a person who wakes up to give you sleeping pills.' Also, a nurse is one who doesn’t sleep to make her patients sleepless with the bill. Isn't it?

To conclude, let me recall the quote of the British nurse Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp and also the Founder of Modern Nursing Science, “Nursing is one of the fine arts; I had almost said ‘the finest of fine arts.’ She also exhorted thus, ‘Let’s never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives.”  Wow, what an inspiring statement hers is!

  

R,SAMPATH

13.5.2025