You know that moment when you’re at a wedding and the bride walks down the aisle? Everyone stands up to watch the beautiful bride. But who do I like to watch? I like to watch the groom. While everyone is oohing and awing (spelling?) at the bride, I’m watching the facial expressions and body language of the groom; they say everything. I feel much the same when I’m in the delivery room with a mom and dad who are about to have a baby. While everyone is watching the mom (and of course, the baby) as soon as the baby’s born, I’m watching the dad. Very rarely will you see a man cry - society tells them if they cry, it will emasculate them- but this stupid rule seems to fall to the wayside in the delivery room. I LOVE seeing a dad (especially a first-time dad) see his new baby for the first time.
Now you may wonder why this is so amazing to me. Well, think about it, for approximately 40 weeks, the mom has been bonding with this child, she has gone with it everywhere, and done everything with it, she knows that baby, and that baby knows her. When mom sees her baby for the first time, it’s not like a first meeting, but for dad, reality finally hits. It’s at the moment when the baby is born that he realizes that he’s a dad, that that baby is his. Wow! It just never gets old!
I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been in Labor and Delivery this past week; it was a nice break from the tragedy and trauma that I normally see working at LRMC. Thank heavens for the healthy babies and new families who have reminded me of one of the happier sides of medicine.
On another note, I return to Med-Surg nursing this week. It has been nice to rotate through the hospital and get an idea of what options I have, and despite the fact that it can be pretty difficult seeing some of these soldiers being so beat up, I can’t think of a better population of patients to work with at this point in my life. Never would I see a population like this on any other Med-Surg nursing floor. These patients have already taught me so much, not just about medicine, but also about myself and my ability to care. I remember in nursing school being told that while understanding medicine is important in nursing (I would hope nurses have a good understanding of medicine), sometimes all the patient needs is someone to talk to or to be there for them. Of course, at the time, I thought, “Yeah, yeah, yadda, yadda,” because I was in nursing school to get the technical education on how to help people get better, not to learn how to be all softy and emotional. Well, now I certainly wish I could go back to day one in nursing school when we were taught the importance of holistic healing and pay more attention, because my instructors were right. But, hindsight is 20/20, and I’m glad that now – even though it took a while – I can really appreciate that being a nurse means more than just treating physiologic problems.
So maybe this post is a little mushy and whatnot, but I can honestly say that I think I have one of the best jobs in the world. I love being a nurse and taking care of people. Unfortunately, sometimes we deal with tragedy, but sometimes we really get the chance to make a difference, and seeing a patient succeed and do well makes it all worth it.
