Sunday, 13 April 2014

Chocolate Stress and Lent



Well its Palm Sunday ,Lent is almost over ( several people give a big sigh of relief here, because they can finally eat chocolate and drink coffee once again...), and Easter is literally round the corner, this might not mean much to many people , and might not seem relevant to nursing but read on and see, lent is the period of time between pancake day and Easter, starting on Ash Wednesday it lasts approx 40 days sometimes a little more,  it occurs just before Easter , which is the most important festival in the Christian calendar, this moves too,  it all depends on the moon- or something like that.

Sometimes people give something up for lent,  to symbolise the time Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by satan, one of my colleagues is giving up stress, not easy in a prison healthcare environment, but a good test of willpower
This leads me onto the point of my post, can nursing and Faith work together, is it possible for a person of Faith to keep their beliefs when working in such a difficult job? 
 My regulator the NMC discourage us from sharing our own personal beliefs and values with patients at work, sometimes the NHS trust will place restrictions on you too, I  have managed to get away with wearing my crucifix so far but I do not have a right to do so and can be asked to remove it. Sometimes people will think you odd or prudish just for being Christian. however I know of a few colleagues who have a strong faith , none more so than my dear friend Dan, In fact his faith is so strong he is giving it all up to become an officer in the Salvation Army - this is the equivilant  of ordination in the Christian church, you can read his blog  here it makes good reading, I guess he felt that his vocation was his faith this is probably what most people associate with the word vocation, but I  believe that vocation is not just something for religious ministers though, they don't have the priority on it you know...
I am almost at the end of the first part of my journey to being welcomed into the catholic faith, I began my conversion last year and Easter is when I will be received.  I have been a qualified nurse now for just over 14 years, I was 18 years old when I started my training at sheffield university and I do not recall that I ever wanted to do anything else my whole entire life, I always knew I would be a nurse, I never had any doubt in my mind that this was the job I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. It's more than a career, it's a life choice, long hours average pay and a great deal of stress, I can see life and death in the same day and no two days are the same, the challenges are endless, the opportunity a are far and wide and you never know what's going to happen next. I have been told many times nursing is my vocation- does it fit with my faith? Of course it does, sometimes there are difficulties, but it's about how you learn to deal with them, I don't have to push my beliefs on people but sometimes it's nice for them to know you keep them in your prayers, or, because of your own faith you consider they may have particular spiritual or religious needs and tend to them.
Nursing is my life, I never wanted to do anything else and never want to do any other job, I have a passion for what I do and  I truly believe it is my vocation, my current role is by far my most challenging, but it also feels right, like it's where I am supposed to be, it's as if it's been waiting for me all this time. Maybe that's because of my faith or maybe I'm just sentimental I don't know,  but I know this Nursing is who I am not what I do and my faith adds to that it makes me who I am without that I wouldn't be me.
A few last words, wether you have faith or not, remember when you loose a patient always open the window to let the soul be free
A happy blessed and healthy Easter to everyone don't eat too much chocolate or you may need a nurse......
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When God Created Nurses

When the Lord made Nurses He was into his sixth day of overtime.

An angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one." And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? A nurse has to be able to help an injured person, breathe life into a dying person, and give comfort to a family that has lost their only child and not wrinkle their uniform. They have to be able to lift 3 times their own weight, work 12 to 16 hours straight without missing a detail, console a grieving mother as they are doing CPR on a baby they know will never breathe again. They have to be in top mental condition at all times, running on too-little sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals. And they have to have six pairs of hands.

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way!" "It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the two pairs of eyes a nurse has to have." "That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. The Lord nodded.

"One pair that does quick glances while making note of any physical changes, And another pair of eyes that can look reassuringly at a bleeding patient and say, "You'll be all right ma'am" when they know it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow." "I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk to a 250 pound grieving family member whose child has been hit by a drunk driver...who, by the way, is laying in the next room uninjured, and feed a family of five on a nurse's paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the nurse very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked. "You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses; recite drug calculations in its sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR nonstop until help arrives...and still it keeps its sense of humor. This nurse also has phenomenal personal control. They can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort a murder victim's family, and then read in the daily paper how nurses are insensitive and uncaring and are only doing a job." Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the nurse.

"There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model." "That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear." "What's the tear for?" asked the angel. "It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save, for commitment to the hope that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life." "You're a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there," He said.