Low skilled.

Need to find my release. 

I'm young, in the pink of health. Should I really be craving a career for myself? I'm really having second thoughts about continuing my job. Every now and then I have people hurling abuse at me and my fellow colleagues. What did we do to deserve this kind of treatment. Being unwell doesn't give people the privilege to be unkind, to be mean. Take all frustration somewhere else but not on people who are trying to help. Genuine care or not, I believe we are trying our best and what do we get in return, complain letters and negative feedbacks. If a patient  needs to have physical, emotional and psychological support to get well, what about nurses? Do we not need them to stay focus and healthy as well? 

Greed.

Man are never contented and will never be. Whatever nurses do, it will never be enough. We are there to attend to patients every needs. Patients come to the hospital for nursing care, not for medical treatments. Doctors don't monitor patients, nurses do. They do not change diapers, nurses do. They don't serve medications, nurses do. They don't feed the patients, nurses do. They certainly do not answer to their calls when the bell alarms, nurses do. 

So what is it with the different standard of treatment towards doctors and nurses? What's with nursing being a low-skilled job? We are trained to do procedures, procedures that most people won't have the guts to think about. Our set of skills is definitely one of a kind. Most of my fellow nurses would be (or are) outraged but I feel sad, not for ourselves, but for people who feel that way. We are way too pampered here on this tiny red dot, people really take things for granted. If all qualified nurses were to stop working one day, who is going to take care of your loved ones when they are ill? I bet majority would not dare to clean their loved one up after defecation, what more nurses clearing up after strangers. It's our job yes, but we're not paid to do so. And you there, certainly do not pay nurses to do these. You pay because you simply have no choice but to pay. So please, do not think you hire nurses and order them around. We are not lackey or some slaves, we are trained professionals and licensed to deliver nursing care and to nurse patients back to health. 

We skipped meals, hold our bladder, maintained nil by mouth, walked till our feet hurts just to feed your loved ones, to bring them to toilet, to give them medications to relieve their pain and also, we get scoldings from patients, relatives and doctors.

We are not machines, we are flesh and blood. Even machines need maintenance, what more us. 

We just need appreciation. Is it really that hard to say a simple thankyou? Mouth made of gold? 

Job satisfaction is not there anymore, expectations and demands are way off the charts. Who can keep up? At this rate, someone should invent robots to nurse patients. 

Nurses will only be remembered in times of need. Pandemic like SARS, if not, we will always be behind the scenes, doing our lowly skilled job while others sit comfortably in their high rise offices, facing papers and screens.

If this is nursing, I rather not.