Nurses
Don’t call nurses angels
And this is the reason Why.
Angels are God’s special agents.
Ministering spirits sent to do the Almighty’s work.
Often unseen and not recognized.
When they are, they are often feared.
And never paid.
Nurses work long hours.
Doing jobs most people wouldn’t want to do.
Couldn’t do.
Sometimes they are placed on a pedestal.
For all the world to see.
Maybe you think they should be worshiped.
Be given a great big slap-on-the back.
Gratefully applauded.
For we couldn’t do without them.
Showing us care in all that they do.
Going above and beyond in every shift.
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Sadly on occasion they can be abused.
Shouted at.
Sworn at.
Even tished upon.
Also objectified.
And put at risk.
Subjected to an evil whim.
Maybe they are super hero's?
Caped crusaders, battling our sickness and disease.
Worth their weight in gold some might say.
But they are not angels.
They are human like you.
Give them respect.
And give them what they are due.
This is one of the poems I wrote as I started my Chemotherapy treatment in 2023. I draw on my experiences of the care that the nurses I came into contact with gave me. Both those in the treatment center and those who visited me at home, to give and to attempt to train me to administer injections into the stomach. Which I needed to help build up my immunity as my treatment caused my immune system to take a big hit.
I was moved to publish this now through what I witnessed on my last visit to the A and E Department at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. I heard a patient being verbally abusive to the nursing staff. I mentioned it to the nurse who came to take my blood pressure. She shrugged it off and told me, “That was tame. We often get worse abuse”.
However, some of the abuse that I heard should, in this day and age, be beyond the pale. To tell someone. “Get back to where you come from”, is as clear as any statement can be. It may have been said when the person was in pain but, it is clearly racist.
Luke, in the Gospel of Luke records Jesus telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. The injured traveler was passed by, by two respectable people who refused to help. The third person to see the injured person was from a group that was despised. The injured person didn’t refuse his help because he was from a different racial group or religion. It was accepted for what it was. As an act of love and neighborliness.
Thank God for nurses.
