“Even the victories were hard.” That is the most accurate description of nursing I have ever read. I worked in a lot of departments. I started at my facility in NC in the ICU — we floated to the burn unit. Burn nurses are a very, very special breed. I would eventually land in the OR. Every nurse in that OR did time in the burn room — with the temperature so hot you had to be careful not to sweat on the sterile field. Very few OR nurses went there voluntarily.

I ended my career as a oncology nurse navigator for GI cancers. The wins were few and far between. But I remember a few. And knowing those patients returned to their families — to their lives helped me cope with the times when all I could offer was assistance setting up hospice care.

Thank you, Jack, for sharing this. There are reasons nurses are only friends with other nurses. With just a look — we know. We know when the victory was hard. ❤