Let’s Salute the ‘Angels of Mercy’ Who are the ‘Covid Warriors’ on International Nurses Day
Mangaluru: Every year for the past six years in a row, on 12 May, I was at Father Muller Medical College Hospital, Mangaluru to cover the International Nurses Day progarmme, but unfortunately, this year due to the Covid-19 lockdown the programme is not held, but still on this International Nurses Day offers let me express my gratitude to the nurses who are our front-line warriors in the battle against the pandemic. Truly, they are the unsung heroes, who risk their lives to save others. As the Covid-19 sweeps the world impacting communities and spreading a sense of insecurity, it’s the ‘Angels of Mercy’ in white who care and instill hope in the minds of patients. They dispense compassion, displaying unparalleled dedication and resilience. They heal the vulnerable with their touch of compassion, soothing smile and words of care.
As the world celebrates the Nurses Day today, May 12, we should remember that the Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital. Nurses lead very demanding lives. Working with doctors, healing patients and educating the communities are just a few of the responsibilities nurses perform on a daily basis. In fact you could say that nurses are the backbone of our healthcare care system, providing us with the attention and medical care that we need to live health long-lasting lives. Sometimes being a nurse can be exhausting at times, but the knowledge and power to help heal others is what keeps them going in challenging times, especially during this pandemic. And while nurses are strong spirited, positive and focused even they need a little pick me up every once in a while – like complimenting them for their well-done job or appreciating their dedication and commitment to patients and health-care.
Not that Nurses at other hospitals, nursing homes and clinics are not worthy to be praised for their service, but one Charitable Catholic Institution in the “Rome of the East” Mangaluru which has and is producing the best and the professionals in the field of Nursing to serve locally, Nationally and Internationally, is none other than Fr Muller Nursing Institution- and there is no doubt about it. Quoting the beginning lyrics from the Fr Muller Institution Anthem : “We Come to Comfort and to Heal, to Love and Serve in Woe and Weal “- these words truly fit and describe the prospective nurses and staff/registered nurses of this great Institution. Nursing is not a profession, it is a vocation, because it’s a God’s choice that they are all selected for this job. For all the sleepless nights, hard work and overtime that nurses sacrifice for their patients, do you think their salary matches their service. Their nursing service is much more than what they earn. More than profession, their nursing career is a Mission.
Among the doctors and other health care fraternity during Covid-19 outbreak, Nurses play a very important role both locally and globally. They are on the front lines caring for these patients day in and day out. They risk their lives to save others lives, and they are able to see what is working, as well as things that can be done differently to provide more effective and efficient care, and offer suggestions for improvement. And for their great role they play, the World Health Organization has declared 2020 as the ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife’. For health care workers and Nurses, just a message from Team Mangalorean- you are doing everything you can in a situation you probably never imagined yourself being in. Take a deep breath, lean on each other for support, reach out if you need someone to talk to, and find healthy ways to decompress. You are important, brave and very much appreciated for all of the hard work you are doing! Kudos and bravo, all you Covid Warriors!
In conclusion, while we celebrate International Nurses Day, because this day is all about celebrating nurses’ endless contributions to society, take this opportunity to show a nurse who has taken care of you how much you appreciate him or her. As with most gestures of appreciation, whatever you decide to do need not be grand or cost much money. Sad as it is, many people neglect to thank their nurses at all, seeing them only as robots who only know how to follow the doctor’s orders, so every little way to say a simple “thank you” will definitely make that nurse’s day.
If you are feeling especially grateful for the way a certain nurse took care of you (fed you, brought you a blanket, cleaned vomit off of you, monitored your vital signs, made sure you were getting the right pills, changed your wound dressings, helped you get to the bathroom, let you cry on his or her shoulder, or any of the hundreds of other things nurses do), today is the day to show that gratitude. Since you are not able to visit them personally due to lockdown, If possible call and thank them or call the Director of the hospital or the Head of Nursing dept and express your gratefulness. However, as mentioned before, it’s the thought that counts the most. A nurse’s main goal is to help you get through treatment and get better, so just knowing he or she succeeded is a reward in itself.
Quoting Florence Nightingale, “Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts”. Long Live the Nurses-the Angels of Mercy! Happy Nurses Day! Happy Sisters Day?
I end this column with a WHO ‘Thank You Nurses and Midwives’ song on YouTube, for being the Covid Warriors
