When Peter was so very sick last winter with his kennel cough, Dr. Patrelli taught me how to massage his cervical area because that is where the cough inhibition center is located. She helped him by applying accupuncture there, and she taught me how to help him by applying accupressure to the same area. It worked quite well. Today I taught that to one of my patients and family members to help with debilitating coughing spasms and it worked for them too. People need to have some power and control over their illnesses and they need to be able to participate in actions to help them to feel better, it takes away some of the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. I have long maintained that the animals in many ways have made me a better human nurse, and certainly my human nursing has made it easier for me to care for the animals. And five minutes of Dr. Patrelli's time and knowledge, helped Peter and me, a patient and a helpless family member, all find some comfort and relief and gave us each back a little bit of personal power and faith that we could work thru some of this. That is a good ripple effect from just five minutes of her time. Sharing freely is such a very good thing.
it is not me deb, it is the profession and i learned nursing at my mothers knee. she told me stories of the wonders of being a nurse my whole life....there are phenomenol nurses in hospice care, in any area really...but hospice is an area where nurses truly shine...define a really good nurse?... the standard was set by florence nightingale, uncompromising compassion, respect and caring. (the knowledge base is learned and can be learned by any, but the heart of it is inside) my family doctor when she heard i was going into nursing was disappointed in me. she said, why do you want to settle for being a nurse? you are smart enough to be a doctor. i was horrified that she did not see that one was not better than another, it was just a different way of caring. i switched doctors after that!
and by the way, truly good teachers are the same...i have been meeting a whole lot of them lately and am in awe of their heart...makes me think that any life of service (including animal welfare) is the same, filled with amazingly compassionate people. we just don't always recognise it about ourselves or about others either. how do we miss goodness when it is right in front of us? i am starting to see so much of it all around me. maybe we all are really making the world a little bit better everywhere. i hope so.