Real heroes
For several months now, my grandmother has been in hospital. Her health has slowly been failing and it’s only a matter of time before she moves on to a better place.
Having spent hours at her bedside I’ve met a number of the nurses who have been caring for her. They always enter the room with a smile, can rhyme off what my grandmother has been eating and, without looking at a clip board, tell us what medications she’s had that day.
These men and women spend every hour of their working day surrounded by human suffering and yet they keep a positive attitude. Even though they are often rushed off their feet, I’ve watched as nurses lingered at my grandmother’s bedside, just to hold her hand for a few more moments.
If you stop to think of what it must really be like to do that job every day; to hold the hand of a dying patient because the drugs aren’t taking the pain away; to watch people in misery day-in and day-out; to show kindness to a patient who is in pain and being unreasonable, it’s nothing short of courageous.
Kate