What makes a nurse?
Barb Lawrie is best known at VCH as an executive and a leader, but she’ll always be a nurse at heart. In recognition of National Nursing Week, Barb reflects on what it means to be a nurse.
Becoming a nurse isn’t a decision anybody takes lightly. It requires constant dedication, from the first day you begin your nursing education to every single day you work as a nurse. It’s not easy – and it’s not exactly relaxing. For those who do answer the calling to be a nurse, it’s incomparably meaningful.
Not everybody is lucky enough to work in a field where they make such a huge difference every day. And not everybody works in an environment that is as emotionally exhausting. When it comes to nursing, your compassion is sometimes the only thing that can get you through a 12-hour shift, and get you back for the next shift.
As a nurse leader, I try to spend time with nurses where they provide care: hospitals, residential care, community, ambulatory clinics. In the last little while, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at LGH. And although what nursing looks like has changed significantly in the last few decades, who nurses are hasn’t.
As we all know, more changes are coming. I’m excited about the Clinical and Systems Transformation (CST) project, which promises to improve the safety, quality and consistency of care delivery. It will change what nursing looks like once again. But it won’t change nurses.
Barb’s graduation photo.
At its core, nursing isn’t just about science, it’s also about caring and compassion – and it’s this combination that makes nurses who they are. For that, I thank all nurses.
To help celebrate Nursing Week, I want to share a poem by a fellow nurse named Melodie Chenevert, who’s written several books on nursing. I hope it will speak to you as it spoke to me.
Happy Nursing Week!
~ Barb Lawrie, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, CST, and Vice-President, Professional Practice and Chief Clinical Information Officer
Being a nurse means…
You will never be bored.
You will be surrounded by challenges.
So much to do and so little time.
You will carry immense responsibility
You will step into people’s lives
and you will make a difference.
Some will bless you.
Some will curse you.
You will see people at their worst…
and at their best.
You will never cease to be amazed
at people’s capacity for
love, courage, and endurance.
You will see life begin… and end.
You will experience resounding triumphs
and devastating failures.
You will cry a lot.
You will laugh a lot.
You will know what it is to be human
and to be humane.
Published with permission of the author, who extends an invitation to all nurses to visit her Lost Art of Nursing Museum in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Happy Nursing Week!
Share this story with your nursing colleagues today.
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