I don’t really ever go on here anymore but I hope that Perth people will see this and think that it’s a pretty cool thing, decide to come along and help those much less fortunate than us.
(I even made it easy and put a link on the photo so all you have to do is click through to get to the event!)
i think that usually i’m pretty good at finding the best in a bad situation but today i’m struggling at it and i think i need some inspiration.
there’s a pain in my chest and it won’t go away.
—Paul Tournier.
I was recently asked a very interesting question. ”Why is it you decided to do what you do?” In fact, I get asked it all the time.
This is a question that I’ve been faced with a lot over the last year and a half and it’s been really difficult to come up with a logical, articulate answer to such a loaded question. I know what the asker really wants to know is “why have you decided to dedicate your life to a profession where a) you’ll get paid most likely next to nothing for a great deal of time; b) you have to deal with so much more than your average joe sitting behind a desk; c) you’ve got to clean up shit”.
Well, I have to say that in this instance I did not acquit myself too well and ended up saying something along the lines of “uhh, I just want to help people and I knew medicine wasn’t for me”. But I’ve thought about it and have finally managed to articulate a reasoned answer to the question that I’ve already been asked about a thousand times and I know I’ll probably be asked a million more. Here it is.
There’s a real gravitas that comes with knowing that you’re going to wake up in the morning and make a difference to someone’s life. Maybe you’ll even save it. They might not even know it yet - you don’t know who’s going to walk through the door. I’m going to spend three and a half years of my life learning how to ease someone’s suffering, save their life, manage their pain and even deal with someone who is dying. And I am completely okay with that. It’s so overwhelming and some days I wake up and think “for God’s sake, another day of this, I can’t do this anymore” and there was a point three months ago where I very nearly walked away but I’m so glad that I didn’t.
I’m not stupid enough that I’ve walked into this career without at least a small understanding of the lack of respect and reward that nurses suffer day in and day out all over the world - you would have to be ignorant not to and it’s drummed into us from day dot at university. This is what I don’t understand when people ask me about it - there’s this weird assumption that actually, no, I didn’t realise that I’ll probably get shouted at, vomited on, maybe even assaulted whilst just trying to go about my day’s work. But I am so okay with all of that because I know that within all of the hard slog, there will be one person a day, week, month, even year - that I can walk away from knowing that if I hadn’t been there that day, they might not be standing here now.
I’m prepared to put up with a lifetime of rubbish just for the knowledge that I saved someone or I helped someone or I made their family feel just a little bit better in a time of great suffering. A few good friends of mine have had to spend time in hospital for various things and they have all said to me that the one remaining thing that they remember and appreciate about their time being ill wasn’t the doctor that they saw, or the surgeon that did their operation, it was the nurse that they saw every hour of every day that they were there, and how much of a difference they made to them.
There’s nothing wrong with going to university and getting your commerce/law/business/arts/whatever degree, if that’s what tickles your fancy. I just know that it would kill me to have to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life. And I also know that I probably won’t drive some fancy car and live in a Mosman Park mansion, at least not for a little while. And I am completely fine with that. It’s all very well being a pinstriped-suited hotshot in a big office with a city view and good for you if that’s what you’re into but what I like about my life and my choice of career is that at the end of the day I won’t go home thinking about some business deal or whether or not I’m going to make partner - I’ll go home thinking about the person that I helped today or the person that I inspired to do what it is that I do.
So there we go. That’s my convoluted reasoning behind my decision to sign my life away to the trials and tribulations of being a nurse. Maybe I won’t be one forever - there’s so many paths that I can take which I’m still thinking about. But I hope that my reasoning behind doing what I do doesn’t change and that I don’t lose sight of what is really important - the reasons that I’ve listed above.
monday, monday, monday!
chris batten, you are tasty
haha! ask me again in three weeks ;)
i’m just trying and struggling to keep this head above the water.
