I’m three semesters into school and I finally like, no, actually LOVE, nursing. School not so much, but the field- very much! Yes, it took a while, 9 months to be exact, for me to like it, but I’m sticking through it and LOVING it! I remember my sister kept asking me, “Are you sure you want to do this? You seem like you don’t love it.” And I never wanted to admit it; but yeah, I never loved it till this semester. Who loves their profession? What a gift!
This semester I’m doing all my clinicals in Magnet hospitals which is phenomenal. It’s the little things in nursing that I love. For instance, my obese patient the other day couldn’t move in her bed and asked for a scoop of chocolate ice cream. I had to remind her she’s a diabetic and that would harm her immensely. She sighed and asked for an ice cold cup of water. Haha, trust me, she had a lot of excess “meat” on her, so refusing to give her the ice cream was to her benefit. I brought her the water she asked for, and she couldn’t thank me enough. She was so grateful, it was as if I performed surgery on her. Again, it’s the little things in life that counts.
Then today in my labor and delivery clinical, I was assigned to a Puerto Rican 19 year old girl who was 34-36 weeks pregnant. Before her C-Section, I adjusted her IV’s, performed a full head-toe assessment, and prepped her for her delivery. The look in this teenager’s eyes was frightening. She didn’t have to verbalize how scared she was, it was painted all over her face. It was clear she had no idea what was going on or what was going to happen.
She had no one with her. No mother, no father, no best friend, and most importantly the father of the baby was absent. Can you imagine that- giving birth at 19 without anyone to share in this happiness of life with? It was startling for me.
She was transferred to the operating room where the c-section was going to take place. The walk from her room to the OR seemed like forever but in reality it was 30 seconds. The tears accumulated in my patient's eyes was devastating. Once she saw the OR, her eyes erupted with tears. Heavy tears to be exact. And harsh cries escaped from her soft mouth. It was terrible. We transferred her to the operating bed and the anesthesiologist began the epidural. I had to stand back because watching this teen cry made me cry and shakey. I actually almost threw up because I was so sad for her. How could this happen? She’s 19 with no one to support her? Her body was stiff and tense, and she grasped the nurse for support and held my hand. Finally she calmed down a little bit and the surgery began. Minutes later a beautiful baby boy was born. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. I JUST SAW A LIVE BIRTH! I saw a human-being being brought to this world, and instantaneously the Mom was happy and everyone was clapping and smiling. (Ugh, I want to go into detail about the surgery, but I don’t want to gross anyone out!)
It was pretty neat, there was a 4th year med-school student observing the c-section with me. He asked if this was my first time and I said, “yes, you?” “Nope, I’ve seen a bunch of them and it gets me every time!” HAHA, so cute! It was nice that he was there because he explained every step of the surgery- I LOVE DOCTORS!
Then, the preemie was announced to be a healthy 5.2 lb. baby! I walked over to the warming bed where the baby was receiving vaccines and ointments to prevent diseases. Words can’t express how precious this moment was. I’ll carry it forever. I can’t begin to describe how happy and honorable I feel to be in the field of nursing. Helping others for a living? It doesn’t get better than that! Corny, I know! But, it’s true!!
