Nurses Are Angels - Nurse Message Center

Nurses are Angels©

Stories, poems, thoughts and letters from patients and nurses who have touched each others lives in special ways. NAA is created and maintained by Christy Gerber Jones, an RN atMiami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio.

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Nursing Message Center
Have a question about the nursing profession? Need a poem not on the site? Please try to help one another find the answers they need by replying directly to them. Send questions to: Christy Jones, RN for posting.

$500. Scholarship WInners
Dian Wilson, St. Louis, Mo.
Jamie Tillotson, Milwauker, WI.
Janice Toomey, San Franciscoi, CA.
Nancy, Jones, Akron, Oh.

From: Jana Sisson, RN
Dear Christy. Not only Nurses are the Angels. I work 12-hour shifts on a very busy CCU. Today was a breath of fresh air for me. I have had extraordinary, difficult, sick patients for over a week. Every shift has been such that you don't have time for a break. Eating at 4:00 every day starts to wear on you. I was tired and probably cranky, but, of course, I try to be as friendly and courteous to my patients as possible. My patient today reminded me of why I chose the nursing profession!!! He was very appreciative of everything I did for him. His compliments will stay with me for a long time. He said things that were very sincere, such as, "You are truly the best Nurse I have ever had. You are a real professional that honestly cares about your patients." He also complimented me on my nursing skills and that he had never had a Nurse like me. He honestly made me forget about the rough week that I was going through. I left today feeling rejuvenated in my career. Thanks to all the patients out there who are sensitive enough to say thanks to a worn out Nurse. You are what makes me coming back day after day to a unit that sometimes is not always a happy place to be!

From: Crystal Markovic
Hi Christy! I am a student, at 30 years of age because I didn't take school seriously when I was younger, in Dallas, Texas. I will graduate in Fall of 2003 with an Associates Degree in Business. I am in the business field now, and I am considering nursing.( I am tired of staring at a computer all day) I have read through Christy's website and love it. I saw your story and had to write and tell you that stories like yours are so beneficial to those considering nursing. When I had my son October of 2001 - I just new nursing was my calling. But then after alot of research, I have read negative websites too where nurses are considering getting out of the profession because of long hours, no breaks, etc.

I realize not everyone is going to like the same profession so there will be negative and positive responses. But the negatives I hear has made me hesitate on my decision.

Is there any advice you can give me - or direction as far as what should I specialize in if I do become a nurse?? I have also emailed this "help email" to Robin that gave her story on your site :)

Any help is greatly appreciated!

From: John
I have these cards called, "A Nurses Prayer." When I was in the hospital all the nurses were real kind and so helpful. So I went and bought the prayer card for nurses. When I handed them out to the nurses they were overjoyed that anyone would think of them that way. I would like to know the names of any nurses that would like to receive one. On the front is a picture of the Blessed Mother and on the back is the prayer asking God to care for the sick placed in their charge.

From Charn D. Robinson
Your poems are lovely. I am in search of a poem posted on the web a couple years ago named "Nurse, you are doing a good job". I do not know the authors name. It was such an inspirational poem and I would like to post it on my unit. Have you or any of your visitors ever heard of the poem and where I might locate it?

From Mickey & Debbie
I am trying to find music for my pinning service and am having a hard time finding the appropriate song for a Nurse Pinning Service. Please help me if you can.

From Mrs. Wilder
I am looking for a poem I had seen in the NICU where my twing daughters were for quite some time. I believe it was called Angels in the NICU. Can someone help.

From: Dorie S. Sandow S2S Solutions Inc.
Christy, My name is Dorie Sandow and I came across your website by accident and am glad for it. First, I think your website is wonderful. It is inspiring and it sure makes a person stop to think of all the things a nurse does that one forgets to thank her for.

I am the Human Resource Director for a hospital that will be opening up in Southern California and I wanted to know more about nurses (this is my first assignment in healthcare) and to really feel their pulse so to speak. Thank you for your website. I can't wait to work with these "angels on earth."

Christy, I emailed also to see if you might be able to give me some insight. I want to be sure that this hospital makes a very strong effort to do all the right things...for its employees, its patients, etc. I hope you can impart your thoughts with me: 1) how do I reach really compassionate, loving nurses other than through traditional advertising, posting on the web, and posting with associations??? 2) You are a nurse--if there is anything you wish management would do for nurses, you wish we would not do because the nurses hate it, things you think we may do to show nurses more appreciation--I should would love to hear of it!

Thank you again for the privilege of reading your website! Interestingly, the hospital will be called Angels Medical Center! By the way, if you ever open up your website for job posting, I hope you let me know. Seems it
attracts the kind of nurses we really want to recruit!
Dorie

From: Sally J. Ceresko
Christy, thanks for such a nice website. I really like your comments re: the current state of nursing having a greater emphasis on "climbing the clinical ladder". Since high school I have been interested in nursing, and in fact have made two attempts to enter the field (first time as an admittedly too immature 20 year old, second time just a few years ago, with leanings toward practical nursing in geriatrics, but with all advice steering me toward a B.S.N).

I am currently working as a billing clerk in the endoscopy suite at University of Michigan Hospital, with some patient contact (schedling post-procedure clinic or radiology appointments). I enjoy the patient contact aspect of my work, as well as the clinical aspect of selecting the proper diagnosis for billing purposes. (I am an accredited medical record technician, trained in ICD-9 diagnostic and CPT procedural coding.

I graduated summa cum laude from this program four years ago.) But I still am drawn toward nursing. I also took a nursing assistant course a few years ago, but decided at the time to enter the medical records field. I have never been interested in becoming "high risk, high tech, high stress Hanna, R.N." - I am very drawn toward a more simple and direct nursing approach, hence the practical nursing idea.
Best Regards, Sally Ceresko

From: Shirley Gibson, Vice President and Nurse Executive, Mary Washington Hospital
Christy, I have just found your web site and have enjoyed it tremendously. I am a nurse executive and will be speaking to my staff as a Tribute to Nurses for Nursing Week. I would like to read some of your humor and wonderful stories with giving credit to you and those who wrote the stories during my presentation.
Thanks very much.

From: John Taylor, Student, Southern Cross Univ., Australia
G'day Christy, John Taylor is my name, I'm a first year nursing student at Southern Cross University, NSW, Australia, currently working on an assisgment relating to " Why nurses need to be able to connect totheir clients and in doind so help form empowering relationships" (Kanitsaki 2001:128) Fundamentals of Nursing.

I found your website to be most helpful as it not only relates stongly to the point of contention for my work but also the stories I have just read, relating to the relationships bonded between nurses and patients, reaffirmes for me the reason I wanted to be a nurse in the first place. Thanks very much for a wonderful site and keep up the good work.
John

From: Cindy Myers
Christy, I am an LPN,not valued or respected for the 24 years of experience and dedication I have in the nursing profession. Florence Nightingale was just a "nurse" without a title that I know of. I don't think she cared about titles back then. Why is is such an important issue today?

Nursing was about caring for the sick and the dying in any capacity needed without regard to the power attached to a title. After all my years in nursing, I have still to figure out what the deal is with RN's and LPN's. Why don't RN's recognize LPN's as nurses but rather treat them like the scum they would just as soon scrape off their shoes?!?!? The majority of LPN's I know would have loved to continue their schooling but did not have the financial resources available - this is unfortunate . As in any profession, there are good and bad employees. I know many many excellent, dedicated and skilled LPN's , and I too know of some poor ones - the same with many RN's I have worked with over the years. Some of both should just have never entered the world of nursing.

In Pennsylvania, there is a nursing shortage - but a shortage of RN's only?!?! Most of the LPN's I know saw this coming a very long time ago, why didn't the state board of nursing? Perhaps they created this dilemna themselves. Nurses are nurses no matter what their title or the years of schooling they have had - it is time they are all recognized as such. The goal is to take care of the every need of an ill or dying patient and together as a team that should be done , each performing their specific duties for the better of the patient. Everyone wants their own Florence Nightingale when they are sick, I don't think it matters what title they have .

In doing some research, I came across your site and felt compelled to write to you. It sounds as though you too went into nursing to care for the needs of the patient but have seen the affects caused by the "business" nursing has become. Maybe more nurses need to voice this very loudly to those in positions to do something about it.
Cindy Myers

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