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What do we, you ask, what do we see ?
Yes, we are thinking when looking at thee!
We may seem to be hard when we hurry and fuss,
But there's many of you and too few of us.
We would like far more time to sit by you and talk,
To bath you and feed you and help you to walk,
To hear of your lives and the things you have done;
Your childhood, your husband, your daughter, your son,
But time is against us, there's too much to do-
Patients too many and nurses too few.
We grieve when we see you so sad and alone,
With nobody near you, no friends of your own.
We feel all your pain, and know of your fear
That nobody cares now your end is so near.
 
But nurses are people with feelings as well,
And when we're together, you'll often hear tell
Of the dearest old Gran in the very end bed,
And the lovely old Dad, and the things that he said,
We speak with compassion and love, and feel sad
When we think of yours and the joy that you've had.
When the time has arrived for you to depart,
You leave us behind with an ache in our heart.
 
When you sleep the long sleep, no more worry or care,
There are other old people, and we mist be there.
So please understand if we hurry and fuss--
There are many of you and too few of us.

I Gave My First Injection Today
Sent in by Misspr@aol.com

I gave my first injection today,
now wait before you get bored and want to walk away
its been a long road to get where I'm at,
15 years to be precise now what do you think of that?

This has been my life's dream to take care of the sick and work with a team of caring professionals with all the same goal of ridding aches and pains and doing work that's not in vain.

So maybe now I have your attention so I can tell you my story  and you possibly won't find it so boring

I gave my first injection today
and my patient didn't flinch
she said she didn't feel a thing.
What a wonderful compliment that she gave to me
"a wonderful nurse you are going to be". 

I also passed meds and cleaned lots of wounds and held alot of hands before I walked from the rooms.
You wonder how can I be so happy in all this misery?
you see I guess I see it different than the average Joe,
before you think I am crazy just let me explain.

If I can ease just one pain or dry just one eye or offer just one daughter some comfort when she finds out her mother has just died.
I have accomplished my task and have been successful in my goals
to have offered a hand when life has taken its tolls.

See I have been truly blessed to have touched these lives and pray I never find it boring or bothersome to do the meaningless of task.
Even when the most trying of patients call and ask.
My goal is to answer every time with a smile
and ask for forgiveness when I can't
after I have gone mile after mile.

Have I told you yet I gave my first injection today.
I am a student nurse and for dedication I pray.

An Old Lady's Poem
When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was felt that she had nothing left of any value.  Later, when
the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem.
Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and
distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity
has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the
North Ireland Association for Mental Health.  A slide presentation has also
been made based on her simple, but eloquent, poem. ... And this little old
Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of
this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet. Goes to show that we all
leave "SOME footprints in time".....

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"

Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is missing a stocking or shoe.....
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten ... with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty -- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman ... and nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.

I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years .... all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; look closer ... see ME!!

<>Remember this poem when you next meet an old person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within ...... We will one day be there, too!

One Angel - No Wings
By Babs Hurst©