Nurses' Day

At least in Singapore it's around this time of the year. International Nurses' Day is sometime in May. Wonder who else celebrates nurses' day yesterday.

I wanna say they're a great bunch of people; taking care of patients day-in day-out. It's really a tough job you know, especially those who work in the chronic sick homes and the nursing homes. The fact that they have to change them at least 5 times a day, shower them at least once a day, transfer them etc. is back-breaking enough (I know I couldn't have lasted more than a month doing these); and on top of that they have to feed them, tend to their needs whenever necessary, talk to them cheer them up make them feel loved. Well. Ideally that's how they're supposed to be. I often wonder how they do it (then again- there's the economic incentive, the fact that they have to earn a living and fulfill their Maslow's basic needs).

Won't deny there are lots of good nurses out there, but I'm sure that, just as there are some nasty doctors out there who think they're all that, there are also nurses who can be abusive as well. That Nightingale Nursing Home incident was a good example. From what I gather, at times it can be quite hard to manage them too. They'd do things for their convenience's sake even though they know it's wrong. When caught, they'd still try to go about it their own way but improvise such that they won't get caught. But what I can't stand are those who're abusive to patients. For those, I lose all respect for them.

Not that I wanna badmouth nurses on this day, it's just that while I appreciate the good nurses' hard work, at the corner of my mind I wonder to myself, what are those 'bad' nurses thinking/feeling during this occasion? Are they really proud of their work as a nurse? Are they really compassionate people with just a few terrible episodes that could happen to just about everyone? Really, what are they thinking? If in the future I ever chance upon them, I'd be sure to interview them.

In any case, happy nurses' day! I hope everyone felt loved and appreciated. :)