love things

Nursing.

I love it.

But I’ll tell you a few things that I don’t love about it.

I don’t love wiping butts.

I don’t love being peed on or puked on.

I don’t love being room service.

I don’t love feeling like an idiot when I can’t explain things or remember medications.

I don’t love feeling helpless when someone feels so sick and they’re counting on me to save them from pain.

I don’t love not knowing what to do all the time.

I don’t love charting.

But there are some things that I do love.

I love the patients.

I love getting to know them.

I love knowing more about them than their doctors do.

I love laughing at myself with them.

I love joking with them.

I love sitting with them and rubbing their shoulder when they’re feeling like they need to vomit.

I love holding their hands when they cry.

I love listening to them and being there to listen.

I love feeling like I’m helping them.

I love hearing them say a grateful “thank you” and knowing that they mean it.

So even though I thought I’d love being a nurse because I get to stab people and take their blood and give them IVs and be in that huge room of medical supplies, I really don’t love all of that. Sure, I like it.

But when it comes to love, the thing I love most are the people.