Nursing....No skills required.

NY Nurse Wins Essay Contest with Poem
McKinney's Poem
My husband once said to me"It's not like what you do requires a lot of skill."With a glance at my expression he quickly changed tact to"Well, OK…maybe it does."
It was then that I decided:It is impossible to understand what it is to be a nurse,Unless you are one.
How could it possibly be put into words?How do you explain what it's like:
To be patient advocate or doctor representative,Depending on whether you're walking into or out of a room.
To hug a grown man while he weeps for his dying mother,Then walk into the next room and "high-five"The 80 year old man that gets to go home today.
To be needed for knowledge,And depended upon for kindness.
To be compassionate, understanding, empatheticAnd objective, simultaneously.
To realize, it never gets easier to watch someone die.
To follow someone else's ordersWhile prioritizing, organizing, and delegating your own.
To take pride in exemplifying team work,And be humble enough to ask for help.
To feel like you have reached your breaking point,Only to be saved by a simple, sincere"Thank You"whispered when you least expect it.
To look back at the last 12 hoursWith a crooked smile and the thought:"Nursing: No Skill Required!"
-- Phyl McKinney, RN