Dainty Garcia

BSN-3A
English III- Speech

How Nursing Is a Way To Having A meaningful Life

Mahatma Ghandi once said, “The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in
the service of others”. This quote indeed inspires me to embrace my Nursing
profession. Nurses care for the sick and help to treat patient in the best possible way
they can. Becoming a nurse is a way of giving one’s purpose in life. However, nursing is
not for everyone, nursing is a passion wherein we should find enthusiasm on what we
do. We all know that journey of becoming a nurse is not that easy and simple. It’s
composed of a lot of hard work and sleepless nights but it shapes us to be a better
person, not just for others but most importantly for ourselves. For this reason, nursing
career is a tool in discovering one ‘self.
But what does nurses really do? Being part of a healthcare team, us, nurses
plays a vital role in the healthcare facility we have been known to be the center of
communication. Effective communication plays an instrumental role throughout a
patient’s entire healthcare experience, and a large portion of the responsibility falls on
us nurses. We are responsible for relaying information between physician, patient,
family members and other caregivers. Nurses must be able to communicate clearly,
especially during periods of intense stress. Patients look to us for care and comfort
during what’s often a highly stressful time, when they may be vulnerable and more
susceptible to influence. Our job requires us to offer ourselves to others, of course,
while maintaining and establishing professional boundaries.
However, some nurses find deep fulfillment by performing caring acts that go far
beyond the expectations of conventional nursing roles. There are nurses who have
sung to dying patients; held the hands of frightened, abandoned children; cried with the
spouse of a sick patient and delivered the body of a draped, lifeless baby into the arms
of a devastated mother; and because being who spent the most time with the patient
throughout their stay at the facility, they sometimes sees us as a friend and someone
that they can count on specially being there is a time of deep struggle in life.
Patients who feel like they are receiving all of the nurse’s attention during an
interaction are more likely to disclose the true extent of their feelings and symptoms
much quicker and will feel more satisfaction with their care. However, as a nurse, to
become more whole and more open to giving a compassionate care for our patient, one
must first practice self-caring and self-love. As nurses, we should know our own inner
source of energy and strength and offer compassion toward our selves; and so we can
increase our capacity to accept others with tenderness and without blame or judgment.
Nurses who listen are able to create trustworthy relationships. They’re able to have their
patients’ and the family’s best interests at heart. Listening may not be a competency
that appears in your job description, but it’s essential to caring.
Nurses and the practice of nursing serve as fountainheads of compassionate
service to humankind, both on the front lines and behind the scenes. Caring, love, and
peace come together in and through the work of nursing. It is a demanding yet
rewarding career. It encourages us nurses to strive for a proper work-life balance. It is a
profession that gives impact to all ages and socioeconomic levels of society. Whether
as a young child, an elderly individual, or a person who is recovering from an accident
or suffering from an illness, nearly everyone has needed the care of a nurse at some
point in their lives. And for this reason, being a nurse helps us understood our purpose
in life and that is to care for others and not just because our profession requires us to
but because it is what we become. Life is being needed in to having purpose, having
responsibility, being able to give, and being able to serve; and Nursing gives us these
reasons to give meaning in our lives.
Having to figure out one’s purpose is never been easy. To begin as a normal
teenager and like most of us have undergone, I wasn’t sure of what path I should take
after high school. Anyway, most of my family are nurses, so there’s no doubt that they’ll
talk to me into entering the program; so I went to Nursing school without thinking if
being a nurse is what I really want to be, until one day, as a student nurse I had a
pediatric patient that was assigned to me, she’s a six year-old girl and she was at the
hospital with her grandma. Me and the grandma had a conversation about how the
child’s parents are working abroad that is why she is the one taking care of her
granddaughter. Observing the child, she wasn’t a people person and is grumpy when
someone approaches her; but for some reason she likes me, and even calls me
“mama”. Growing up I stayed with my aunt, for both of my parents resides in a different
country. However, having that in common is not the reason I become more
compassionate towards her; it is for I realized that just having my presence in that
facility can be a huge thing for someone and I thought, what more if I can offer myself to
serve and help them. And that’s how I see how nursing gives a way to have a
meaningful life.
Before I end my speech I would like to leave a short quotation by Christina
Heilmier, who is a registered nurse. She once said that, “Every nurse was drawn to
nursing because of a desire to care, serve and to help”.
Thank you.