I've been lucky.
Since coming back to the States, I've been able to work as a travel nurse in temporary positions that work with my schedule. I've had the freedom to spend time with family and friends while still being able to put in some hours in various places. It has been almost exactly what I was hoping to do with my time at home, and I have been so blessed.
However.
Healthcare is a tough place to work these days. As a temp nurse, the openings are generally in places that are desperately understaffed. The work isn't any easier, and there's just a lot of it. I'm sure you've heard the stories... but nurses are tired. There have been so many days when I feel like I'm just scraping by.
But.
One day I was charting in a patient's room, and she said, "maybe you know...what's the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?" Now I'm sure this lady was just bored out of her mind after spending weeks in the hospital with no visitors allowed. I'm sure she was just trying to start a conversation and glanced at the New Testament the chaplain had left on her bedside table. I'm sure she had no idea that I had just finished with my other patients and had half an hour to sit down and chat. I'm sure she had no idea that she'd gotten herself into an in-depth theological conversation where I could clearly present the Gospel. I'm not sure she really wanted to go in that deep, but I sure took advantage of the opportunity😛.I'm sure she has no idea that I'm still praying for her and that she would understand Truth. That day I felt like a good nurse.
One day I took care of a man who needed a machine to breathe for him. Though he was fully awake, he couldn't talk, eat, breathe for himself, or lift his arms or legs at all. As I was turning him to relieve the pressure on his sacrum, he started to mouth some words to me. Through a combination of my lip reading skills, trial and error, and resorting to going through the alphabet to spell words I couldn't make out, I was able to take down a fairly lengthy and detailed message to give his wife. When I called her and relayed the message, she burst into tears. With no visitors allowed and overworked nurses, she hadn't been able to truly communicate with her husband in days. Twenty minutes out of my day on the phone with her made all the difference. That day I felt like a good nurse.
Those were days that reminded me that I don't have to be getting an IV on the first try on a seizing baby in the 100 degree heat in the middle of Africa in order to be a 'good nurse'. Those were days that reminded me to be faithful, to be willing to take the time, and to remember that, 'whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people' Colossians 3:23.
Because they haven't heard,
-C-
