International Nurses Day

Happy International Nurses Day!

As many of you will know I am currently studying to become an Adult Nurse. I am in my second year of my degree, with just 11 weeks of placement standing between me and my final year. I am terrified, to say the least. 

I have always wanted to be a nurse for as long as I remember, there has never been another profession that appealed to me as much. I never had much contact with nurses when I was young, and had no exact reason as to why one day I'd want to train as one. To be brutally honest it wasn't until gaining my place at university, and well into my first year until I actually began to understand the true meaning of what it meant to be a nurse. 

Nursing is helping those who are vulnerable and in need, it is aiming to make the sick better and caring for the terminal and those at the end of life in the most compassionate and dignified way. 

Nursing is not only caring for patients, but also patients family and social network surrounding.

Nursing is treating a patient as a whole, attending to not only their physical health problems but their social needs, their emotional needs, their spiritual needs.

Nursing is assisting recovery, improving and restoring ones health.

Nursing is promoting the best possible quality of life.

Nursing is a relationship between patient and carer, it is allowing communication, personal skills, compassion, and empathy to aid trust and respect.

Nursing is caring for those who have terminal illnesses, caring for those who have lost, caring for those who are in need.

Nursing is not glamorous, it is challenging and demanding, it is life changing and dedicating.

Nursing is educating, teaching and promoting.

Nursing is treating everyone as equals, being non-judgmental.

Nursing is not easy, everyday I contemplate whether I can actually do this as a profession, it is physically and mentally demanding. It is hard work, there's early morning starts, and late night ends to shifts, there's night shifts, long shifts, and weekend shifts. You don't get amazing pay or benefits. It requires skill and knowledge and endless education. However I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Nursing is my life, its not just what I do but it's who I am.

I am proud to nurse.