This pandemic so far has created some insane unknowns. Restrictions, rules, lockdowns, coupled with fear and borderline panic everywhere.
As a ICU nurse, I have gotten used to death, and dealing with how that looks and feels, for families and for patients.
As a ICU nurse, I have gotten used to death, and dealing with how that looks and feels, for families and for patients.
One thing I wasn't prepared for with this pandemic was how visitors would be so restricted, and how many rules would limit the normal process that families experience with critically ill or dying patients. Many places are completely not allowing COVID-19 patient visitors are all.
Families are expected to never see their critically ill or dying family member, ever, and those patients can suddenly go from fine to dead in very little time at all. The grieving process and ability to experience death as a process is completely disrupted.
I've had to remember, in the midst of seeming chaos, that I am still a nurse. I can make decisions that don't always follow strict rules. When I've gotten to the point of running on borrowed time, I can give the gift of even a few hours to family who hasn't had any time at all
When I have nothing else I can give to my patient that will change the outcome for them, I will advocate for a peaceful end, and help them die with dignity.
But I cannot forget how much time is also a precious gift in this strange, new world.
But I cannot forget how much time is also a precious gift in this strange, new world.
Don't forget that a fundamental part of being an nurse is giving gifts that no one else can, and remember that those gifts don't always look like the skills you had drilled into your head in nursing school.
I am the most humbled as an ICU nurse when I run out of tools that require learned skills, where disease processes and the human body remind me that we're all only hanging in this world by threads, and it doesn't take much to break them past the point of repair.
In this new, crazy and unknown world, remember: You are a nurse. You have the power to make small decisions and give gifts that NO ONE ELSE CAN, because your gifts are more than simply taking care of what a human body needs.
Your gifts are what we all as HUMANS need.
Your gifts are what we all as HUMANS need.
