Letter: Now more than ever nurses deserve our appreciation

#DearNurses,

How do you thank someone who could do many things, but decided to follow a profession taking care of the sick day and night?

These days with COVID overwhelming the healthcare facilities, I cannot even imagine how difficult it must be for them – not just wearing suffocating PPE, but to attend to a patient suffering from a viral infection with no good cure. Putting themselves at risk every time they suction the patient, turn over the patient, give medications or even to just check their vital signs.

Others go in and out of a patient’s room, but it is the nurse and the nursing assistant who are on the frontlines. These dedicated professionals follow the Nightingale Pledge, part of which states “zealously seek to nurse those who are ill wherever they may be and whenever they are in need” and do whatever it takes to help these patients get better. While others sleep at night, they are the eyes and ears whom watch over and care for our patients.

Now more than ever nurses deserve our appreciation. A person on the street may never know what goes on within the four walls of a hospital when a patient is admitted with a COVID pneumonia. If only they could see how sick these patients are and what it takes for these nurses to help them get better. They would never even question why they should get vaccinated and protect themselves, their families, neighbors and the whole nation from this threatening virus that continues to mutate.

There are many nurses who got the COVID infection, recovered and are back at work. This takes loyalty and dedication, knowing that they could be exposed to potential reinfection. Not many in other professions would consider doing this.

The two words “Thank You” cannot possibly say enough to appreciate what you do.

Southcoast Health Colleague