Becoming a nurse

Little moments

Today I went to work. In the morning you never exactly know what will happen this day. In our job you need to be prepared for the unexpected. Yes, you have your daily routines like in every other job, but there is more.

On the one hand, there are moments where you need to decide fast and act as soon as possible, which is challenging. This is intense and demands a lot.
On the other hand, there are those little moments. Moments of gratefulness. Moments which confirm and are the reason why I chose for being a registerd nurse.

I'm going to tell you a bit about the little moments of gratefulness. The last two days, I cared for a 6-year-old boy. At this point I should maybe tell you first, that I'm working now on a children's oncology ward. Some may think, why working on a ward with this complexity and emotionally challenging situations. The reason, why I finally decided to take this job, was the familiar atmosphere within the team as it is only responsible for 8 patients. I hoped to have more quality time with the patients, which is very rare on most of the wards.

So, about this boy. He'd just gotten the diagnosis of leukaemia. Blood cancer. What a diagnosis at that young age. He was scared. A lot. My goal was that he'll trust me. I took my time and used his imagination. I explained what I was doing and let him decide where it was possible, to give him a little of control back.

Today, it was almost the end of my shift, I had a little talk to the boy's dad. He was impressed in which way I worked and interacted with his son. In my presence he seemed less scared than with other nurses. This was such a little moment. It confirms my hypothesis, that with a little more time and empathy you may have positive influence on a patient's future considering fear related to medical interventions.

Or there is this two-year-old girl. Unfortunately, she's already a bit of a time on our ward, because of multiple complications. In good and in bad times I tried to be there for her and her parents. She's a very smart and curious girl. It now happened twice, that after I finished a task on her e.g. taking blood, she was clapping her hands and giving me a little applause. That was kind of cute.

These two situations are just examples of such little moments.

It's a start to give you an insight of my daily work on a children's oncology ward. I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Don't be shy!