While studying for my university degree, one of my assignments was to find a picture of a nurse in the internet and describe what it portrays. Let me tell you, that back in the '90s, when I have Googled "nurse image", probably first 10 images were of "sexy" nurses, porn "nurses", etc...Makes you wonder about nurse's professional image and reputation...
Well, let me tell you that in reality, we are NOT wearing tight white uniforms that barely cover our bottom, which probably shatters many of the sexual fantasies our partners may have ever had, while considering to marry a nurse. We are, actually, mostly wearing shapeless boring scrubs, that cover every hint or suggestion of femininity underneath it. We often have stains and blobs on our uniforms and on our shoes, towards the end of the day, of undisclosed origin. It's better to be kept this way for the gentle souls of common civilians around us. My very own hubby, on very early stage of our relationship, declared that he absolutely refuses, under any circumstances, to ever come to my work place. All this happened, after he once decided to surprise me with flowers, being a romantic boyfriend. He came in to Internal Medical ward, where I was working as young nurse, and instead of meeting his "fantasy", his eyes had met ME, wearing those shapeless scrubs, mentioned above, and carrying a bag of undisclosed body liquid in it. For him, it was surely, the red line. Today, 17 years later, my darling still keeps his promise and never ever enters my place of work, but always waits patiently outside. So this is so much for the "sexiness" of being a nurse.
Next on the list is shopping. We all know how shopping is girl's best friend and how shopping is the ultimate endorphin and is better and cheaper then psycho-therapy.....unless you are a nurse.
When you are a nurse, you spend most of your life wearing PJ's of different colors (if you are lucky enough), otherwise known as scrubs or nursing uniform. My luck ,over the past nearly two decades ,split between white classic color in my homeland to traditional black color in my new found home in New Zealand (because everything is black in NZ, the blacker, the better!!! Go the All Blacks!). Being so "lucky", every time I go shopping and get excited about one outfit or the other, the eternal question inevitably pops up: Irit, where and when will you wear this beautiful outfit? I try to fight this question in every possible way. Sometimes I ignore it, sometimes we negotiate, sometimes, I actually win. However, most of the times the nurse in me reminds me of how "lucky" I am ,having my black "PJ's" always on me. These are the moments that make me feel jealous of all the boring office workers, whom I never wanted and never would have liked to join. It is just not me, because I am a nurse!!!!!!
Nursing profession is very rewarding in sense of interpersonal communication and relationships, established with my patients and their families. Seeing someone feeling better then they were when I have first met them are the best reward for me, indeed. Nevertheless, some people are so grateful, that they take it one step farther and describe the nurse who looked after them as an "Angel in white (or black, for that matter:-)" I know that these people are sincerely grateful and only mean to express that. Well, the truth is, my dear friends, that there is nothing angelic about me or any other nurse. Nursing is a profession and not a God given gift! We study hard to become a nurse and earn our diploma, exactly like engineers and teachers and others. Moreover, nurses as a group, are one of the rawest species you will ever meet.We have seen and touched things that most of the general public finds it hard to even imagine, we have been involved in the situations that could break anybody's hearts, we have dealt with things that would drive normal person nuts. So most of us develop sense of humor that I would classify as black-to-sick side of the scale. It's a survival matter for us. On my first years in the profession, I remember my family refusing to sit with me around the same table for dinner. Being constantly overwhelmed by stories and emotions from my early days at work, I was trying to share them with my family. They claimed that I make them sick. I guess, this is what happens when you are a nurse in the family of engineers:-)
Also, when my family members are trying to look for my "angelic"sympathy every time they have a new scratch or a blister, it's just NOT there!!!! I am sorry!!!! As long as you are breathing on your own and there are no central lines stuck in your veins, you are NOT really sick, my dear!!!!! Anything less then this is not worth getting excited over. On my nursing domestic emergency scale it's not high enough. Just take Panadol, cold compress and get over it! Only if that didn't help, please come back and your complaint will be reviewed again. I must say this rule doesn't apply to my very own kids. It is amazing the shift in my mind set, when it has to do with the little ones. I stop being a nurse, the mum in me is completely taking over.
Now let's go back a bit, to the social aspects of being a nurse. Naturally, a lot of my closest friends are also my colleagues (that was the case before the immigration), fellow nurses. We tend to stick together and this is for a simple reason, that no one else is capable of understanding us the way we understand each other. For example, I have once went for a dinner with my hubby and other two couples. One couple were a doctor and a nurse and another one just simple civilians. I was sitting and chatting with the medical couple, discussing some interesting cases of bleeding, vomiting and other potential symptoms of bowel cancer....all over a nice Italian dinner, when suddenly I have felt my hubby's foot kicking mine under the table and his eyes/body language are suggesting to immediately shut up. When I turned to the third couple, they looked somewhat pale and not very interested in the meal....or the conversation. Hhhmmm....I don't remember having any more meals with those guys:-) So ,with time, I have developed two parallel circles of friends and I intentionally try not to mix between them, because apparently, more then one nurse in the room, or even worse, around the table, may result in indigestion for the others around that same table.
Another things is that there are always friends or even friend's friends, or neighbors who will willingly disclose to me the most intimate sides of their lives and bodies and ask for advise, because I am a NURSE. It may happen at any given time (...after all, I am a nurse, I'm used not to sleep at night...or ever...).
To finish off on the positive side, I have often heard the question: How don't you ever get sick? You always work with the sickest people. The truth is that after probably 3-5 years on the job every nurse has been exposed to sooo many bugs and has developed so many antibodies that it would potentially be a good idea to use our blood for vaccines development. Until then, I would wish everyone to stay healthy and love a nurse!
I am proud to be a nurse from top to toe and have never regretted the decision to become one!
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