Inspired

This is my third night shift this week, and may I remind you that I don't usually work these. I am, by trade, a day shift RN, but decided to help out my fellow nurses. It really is a whole different world. The care is the same, the acuity doesn't change, but fewer people are around to crowd the halls.

I am fortunate enough to work somewhere where each person helps the next. You will never here "That's not MY patient!" Each person on the unit is everyone's responsibility, and we treat it as such. There is no time to decide whether or not to help, we just do it, and I would like to think that is due to our compassion, not just our instinct.

Being night shift, I had some free time to finish my most recent book "A Big Little Life; A Memoir of a Joyful Dog" written by Dean Koontz. On the last page of the book, in the last chapter, there is a statement that sent shivers down my spine. I find it to be true, and wanted to share it. Don't over analyze it, just think about it a few seconds, and realize the magnitude of our responsibility to one another. By caring, we change lives everyday.

" ...because the only significant measure of your life is the positive effect you have on others, either by conscious acts of will or by unconscious example. Every smallest act of kindness- even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, the compliment that engenders a smile- has the potential to change the recipient's life."

I could not agree more.