The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives

by Theresa Brown

“It was not fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order.”

Indeed, an oncology nurse’s favorite words to a patient are, “I hope I never see you here again,” and we’re telling the truth.

Same in psyh ward

Hospitals are filled with caring staff, but resilience and determination are prized as highly as empathy.

Amid the many uncertainties of the shift there is one thing I know for sure. Am I ready and up to the job? Yes. Today, and every day, for the sake of my patients I have no other option; the answer has to be, and always is, Yes.

Three allows me to treat my patients as people. Instead of rushing from room to room I can move at a human pace and also be on top of everything going on with them:

Hospital administrators with their eyes on the bottom line seem to think that nurses can stretch infinitely, like rubber bands.