PAMPA, Texas — Long ago, Florence Nightingale, known as the “Lady with the lamp,” was the overall innovator and founder of modern nursing. Nightingale’s work in the early 1840s concentrated heavily on reducing the death count, which today continues to ring true, as nursing practices sway the mortality and morbidity rates.
Present day nursing has changed; however, the semblance of Nightingale’s pursuit of skill, knowledge, discipline, and learning the art of science-coupled-with-compassion continues with a heightened sense of urgency.
Today, nursing continues to require a ‘calling’ to the profession of healing the infirmed. Nursing has advanced in multiple environments in which to humbly hone the “art of science” as Nightingale envisioned. Without additional healthcare disciplines, the advancement of nursing progress would have been slower.
Twenty-eight years ago, in my last semester of nursing school, my assignment was to report to a Neurological Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This experience I would gain that day shaped me into the nurse I strive to be. The assignment was to take care of a young man – a Marine, who had been in a military helicopter crash killing all on board but him. An ethics committee met the day before with the ultimate decision that after his mother said her goodbyes, this tall, handsome young man would have his intravenous medication and the ventilator turned off. My training thus far in nursing school taught me that hearing is the last intact sensory awareness the dying has. However, nursing school could not have prepared me for what I would witness next. It was sheer humble-ness, which only God can afford and help me sustain for my entire nursing career thus far.
With my patient assessment complete and all efforts to make my patient comfortable, I was at the nursing station documenting my findings when a lady approached me asking if it was acceptable to sit with her son as it was not visiting hours. To be honest, my immediate thought was selfish, thinking, “I am not ready for this to happen – this just could not happen today, not my first day in NICU.” His mother, standing just feet away, patiently waited for my approval to see her son and to begin her goodbyes. I provided her with an explanation on how we were keeping him comfortable and to please take all the time she needed with him. Returning to the nursing station to document the arrival of his mother, I inadvertently looked to Marine’s room and witnessed the last, long, tearful good-bye my patient was receiving from his mother.
She began by kissing him from his head to his toe - cooing, just as if, he was a small infant who had just received a bath, and it was kiss and giggle time. Unable to look away, I thought how courageous and composed this mother was while saying her last good-byes to her precious son. After she finished her goodbye, she gave me a nod, indicating it was time to remove him off the ventilator. Notifying the physician and respiratory therapist, the ventilator was turned off and the young Marine was allowed his final rest.
Throughout the years of my nursing career, this beautiful moment I witnessed has always been my guiding light, just like Nightingale’s lamp. Preserving a human connection allows for celebrations which are equally happy and heartbreaking to be a part of the nursing experience. During Nurses’ Week, or on this National Nurses Day, May 6, 2023, a nurse is simple for me to describe. Nurses are heroes who wear invisible cloaks, which pocket professional integrity, ethics, morals, compassion, skills, knowledge, and discipline. What entails in the making of a nurse today is much grander than Nightingale ever intended.
For more information, please contact Pampa Regional Medical Center at 806-665-3721. Media please contact Keith Anderson, Business Development and Marketing, at 806-665-2361, or email kanderson8@primehealth.com.
