What Makes Nurses Sick

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I’m a coward. That’s why being a nurse never crossed my mind. I’m scared of my own pain. Therefore, I cannot imagine tending to someone whose internal organs are weak, survived a fire, building or car accident.

I want life to be rosy. That’s why I appreciate nurses. Doctors are great I guess but they are not hands on like nurses. They are specialists. They touch here and there and send you to caves full of Star Wars machines for a digital diagnosis. When you regain consciousness you are back in the ward, so that nurses can continue with the real health care, the human touch.

Who takes care of nurses when they are sick? We never thought about that in 2020, when COVID-19 made a rude entry. We were selfish. We expected nurses to continue taking care of the country. I don’t think they went on vacation.

“It’s their job.” They do more than that. They listen to us, something we don’t get at home from people supposed to love us. They listen when we make them larger than life. One daughter is in Thompson Manitoba working with those ‘unfortunate’ indigenous people. A son is in West Africa spreading the work of the Lord.

What makes nurses sick is not standing all day, but listening to what is in patients’ hearts and minds.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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