Personal Narrative: My Love Of Nursing

Martha Amanda Boyd
Kathleen Schexnayder
ENGL 101

Nursing: Is It Really Worth It? I have always had an undying love for nursing. Ever since I was in elementary school I had wanted to be a nurse. The day I received my nursing license in the mail was one of the biggest days for me, and the day I vowed to do my job as a nurse with pride and to the best of my ability, while loving every minute of it. However, this day almost changed my view and my love of nursing forever. It was a typical Saturday evening for me, saying hello to my co-workers and patients as I hurried past them towards the time clock. I entered my code and scanned my hand. It was 6:00 p.m., time to start my shift. I got report from my co-worker: everything as fine, just
the way I had left it that morning, just “the new lady” Mrs. Williams was complaining with her stomach, but she had already gotten medicine for it around 1:00 p.m. that day. We finished our reporting, counted the narcotics box, and the keys were handed over to me. I quickly went and made rounds on all my patients- all 55 of them. I stopped by Mrs. Williams’ room to check in on her. “How are you doing today, Mrs. Williams?” I asked in my always happy, chipper voice. “Oh honey, I’m just fine. Thank you for asking,” she replied. “Okay, I’ll be back shortly to check on you and give you your medicine. Now if you need anything at all before then, just hit the call light and let me know,” I said. I hurried back down the hall to get ready to start passing out medications to my patients. I made sure I had everything I needed before heading off to the lockdown unit. Once I was on the lockdown unit, my patients began coming up to me one by one. As they did, I gave them their medication and talked with each one for a minute- something most of the other nurses there didn’t do. As I was giving my last patient on the lockdown unit their medicine, I heard on the intercom, “Amanda, you’re needed to room 312…Amanda, room 312.” I immediately recognized the room number as Mrs. Williams’ and thought something must be wrong. I hurried off the lockdown unit, up the hall towards the nurses’ station, turned the corner, and made a beeline towards room 312. I quickly knocked and went in, asking “Is everything okay?” Mrs. Williams said, “Oh honey, my stomach is bothering me again. Can I have something for it?” I looked at my watch- 7:00 p.m. I told her sure thing and I would be right back with it. I scurried back down the halls to my cart, grabbed the medicine she needed, and back down the halls to her room I went. I gave her the medicine, she said thank you and I went on to finish passing medicine to the rest of my patients. I continued on passing medicine and talking with my patients. I looked at my computer to see how I was doing with time. It said 8:06 p.m., so I was okay. I turned to talk with one of my patients and I heard it again. “Amanda, room 312…Amanda, room 312.” I apologized to my patient and went to room 312. She was still complaining with her stomach. I reassured her I would call her doctor to see what else we could do for her and I would let her know something as soon as I heard from her. I went down the hall to the nurses’ station to call the answering service for her doctor. I put the call in, now all I could do was wait for them to call back. I went back to passing medicine and talking with my patients. Thirty minutes later, at 8:36 p.m., I was paged to room 312 once again.
As I was coming down the hall, I was stopped by a younger lady. “Excuse me ma’am,” she began. “Maybe you can help me. My mother, Mrs. Williams, called me saying that her stomach was hurting extremely bad, the nurse told her that she would call the doctor and never did. Now it’s been hours since her nurse or anyone else had checked on her, so I came up here to find out exactly what is going on.” I was dumbfounded. How could she say no one had checked on her for hours when I was running to her room at her every beckon and I was just in the room no less than forty-five minutes ago? How could she say no one ever called her doctor when in fact I was the one who called? Then I realized…this lady standing in front of me has no idea that I’m her mother’s nurse. “Wow, I put in all this effort to keep my patients happy and comfortable, and for what? To get lied on and thought of as a horrible, neglectful nurse?” I thought to myself. I informed her that I was her mother’s nurse, and I did call her doctor. I explained the process of calling the answering service, the service pages the doctor, and then the doctor calls us back. She didn’t care. She showed no remorse for what she had said. Instead she began badgering me with questions. She wanted to know why the doctor never called back if I had really called her. I told her I would call the answering service back to put in another page for her to
call. As I walked up to the hall to the nurses’ station, I began to question everything.
Was I really that horrible of a nurse? Did I even deserve to be a nurse? I pushed those thoughts out of my head and told myself, “Amanda, you are a great nurse.” Of course I was. Not only did I graduate top of my nursing class, I had an ER doctor who took me under his wing and showed me everything I needed to know and more. I knew more than what some RN’s knew. I’ve never had any of my patients die on me, so I must be at least a half decent nurse. I went in the nurses’ station and called the answering service once again. After getting off the phone, I began to walk out the nurses’ station to go tell Mrs. Williams’ daughter I called the doctor back and was preparing myself for another round of badgering questions when the phone
rang. Finally! It was the doctor! I quickly told her what was going on and she gave me an order to send Mrs. Williams to the emergency room. It seemed as if heaven had sent an angel from above to come save me. This was the break I needed. I hurried back down the hall to inform her daughter that she was being sent to the ER. A few minutes later, the ambulance pulled up. It was such a huge relief. Later that night while on my break, I called Brian. Brian was the ER doctor who I had learned so much from. I told him the story, every detail. I told him how I felt. I felt so low, so stupid. I felt I wasn’t good enough to be a nurse, and maybe nursing just wasn’t for me. Then Brian said something that I’ll never forget. He said, “Don’t worry about what other people think of you. As long as you know what you’re doing is right, don’t worry about anything else. You’re an amazing nurse, and anyone would be lucky having you take care of them, some people are just too bitter to realize that.” Those were the words I needed to hear. Those words made me feel as if I was the best nurse. Those same words encouraged me to continue my job as a nurse and to work even harder. I’ll never be able to repay him for that.