Old people & Nurses

Old people… they are not a mysterious species that just one day ‘showed up’, we all know where they come from. The real mystery, or reality, is how certain old people get where they’re going and arrive as we know them.

Everybody knows the old lady or old man that you encounter in your stint at the hospital. It’s that person the nurses would be glad to be rid of and patients can’t believe exists. They are such a constant ever present thing, that if you have not ‘met’ one, for reasons other than never having been in the hospital, you ARE most likely that person.

But funny enough, it’s not just old people, they can be any age, yet for some strange reason their character is like cookie-cutter produced. Regardless of age, race or mentality [that they try to convince you they have] they remain the same.

But, I encourage you, do not ignore these patients. The ones who weep in the corner simply to keep your attention on them, take note, because it’s these people, my friend, these special individuals that make us take a step back and not just to look at how we’re living, sure that can be done, but they make you step back and take a look at a service not many people venture into these days and when they do, they don’t stay and it’s no science as to why.

These patients make you take a long look at the nurses of our modern era. Not the doctors, the nurses. Sure every country could use a few more doctors and specialized people like such, but I wonder, can the same be said about nurses?

It is indeed a special field of labour all its own. And despite the many strikes, which probably come from those desperate anyway, we always tend to fail to value this service as it should be.

From dealing with cranky patients who are tired of being sick and tired to dealing with doctors who may or may not have lost touch with their human side along the way. Nurses have tried to ensure that the term ‘bedside manner’ hasn’t been relegated to a simple forgettable term taught to trainees in nursing school.

While we see praise given left, right and centre for the achievements or the simple existence of doctors, it is rarely seen that such noise is made for the nurses who do so much more behind the scenes. But let the disgruntled few complain once and the world growls at them as if they’ve done some foul thing.

Despite the thankless nature of this job, there still exist the people who heed the call to care for people and do so to the best of their abilities and I can’t help but give my respect to them. Because let’s be honest, it takes one hell of a person to keep answering the call of a patient ringing the emergency button, in the dead of night, just to inform the night staff that ‘they are fine’.

So as the festive season rolls around, most likely one of the busiest times for these underpaid and overworked angels of medicine take a moment to think of them and maybe even thank them. As for those old people, take note of them too. Because despite the irritation they may cause you, without them you would never know the true value of a dedicated nurse at your bedside who still manages to smile your way.