Whatever they bring, we can always revisit that first three years.
Communicated to us by instructors, sometimes from the same School of Nursing, were clinical lessons about many things young nurses no longer learn or use:
mustard plasters and linseed poultices
preparing special diets for diabetics and heart patients
standing up when physicians entered the nurses station!
back rubs with hs care
mitered corners on crisp cotton sheets
just at the cusp of using glass syringes with re-usable needles we learned about new plastic syringes and disposable needles,
glass thermometers with mercury infills,
sphygmomanometers and stethoscopes,
starched cotton uniforms and caps soon to be replaced by pantsuits of polyester, caps soon to disappear from sight,
stainless steel equipment from bedpans to suture trays ~
and each task learned was for the care and respect of our patient from the neonate struggling to begin life, on through the life span to the very elderly at death's door.
We will all keep on walking through our own lives hopefully having gained bit more wisdom from the diverse paths we have chosen and followed.
Whatever they bring, we can always revisit that first three years with a smiles and tears.........
“There are no days more full than those we go back to.”
~ Colum McCann, Zoli
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