What is it that makes a person want to become a Police Person or a Nurse? I have often wondered this. What is it that makes a person decide to give their life over to a life of service and excruciating hard work? I don't know. I ask myself that everyday as I don my scrubs.
Nurses or Police are people that are called to serve by a force that they cannot deny. Almost like a calling to serve God but not the Church. I suppose it is much bigger than that. You are called to serve to such a degree that you cannot fight this calling. You give with everything you have. You give your body, soul and sometimes your very life. Only another Nurse or Policeman can look into the eyes of another and understand the sacrifice that the other has given. There is nothing like it. A Doctor has glory and pay. A Nurse and Police has none of these. We are the true servants of blood sweat and tears.
Have you ever been to a delivery of a baby? The Delivery Nurse has been with the laboring Mother for hours. She has coached this Mother and done everything for this women to give her comfort and made sure that she and the fetus were cared for until the moment of delivery. The Doctor comes in at the very last second and catches the Baby. The Doctor gets all the praise and thanks. In reality he has done nothing but play catch. Most Doctors don't want to be called until the baby is almost on the floor. The Nurse does everything to ensure the Baby and Delivery are perfect for the Family and the Doctor. She does check in with the Doctor and gets orders but if that was not a law, the Doctor would probably be more than happy to not hear from the Nurse at all until the last possible moment. The Nurse gets to clean everything up. Trust me, it is a lot to clean up. No one ever thanks her. They just ask her for stuff and order her around.
Same with Policemen, they could do a million things right. Protect and serve a community and keep the peace for years. One thing goes wrong or even sorta goes wrong and now they are called out as being brutal and overly aggressive.
I keep thinking about our Law Enforcement. These Men and Women are out numbered beyond imagining and set out to keep the peace in neighborhoods that violence is as common as candy. They are not respected, hated even. Their jobs are impossible. In fact, it seems that the rules and regulations seem to favor the criminals and make the job of keeping the peace insanely hard. I think that the anger they display at times might be a release of some really pent up frustration.
Why would anyone keep doing these thankless jobs, if not a true calling to serve the wretched thankless public? Maybe they are not wretched or truly thankless but the job is.
I think that God chooses those whose hearts are the most giving and strong to be those that serve. I don't know. I do know that there is nothing I would rather not do. I have to be a Nurse. Just as I know that a Police Officer has to protect and serve.
We are cut from the same cloth, Nurses and Police. There is a certain selflessness to it. This desire to do for others before you do for yourself, sometimes before you even do for your own family. I can't explain it. I just know it is a drive I cannot explain.
Sometimes we are not perfect. I know that I pray every morning to God in his heaven that I will not do any harm and be a good Nurse every day. That I will be kind and caring. That I will make no mistakes. However, not once have I ever woke up in the morning and say to myself, Teri you need to hurt a Patient today and make a horrible mistake. Nope, not once, have I ever prayed or wished for that. I am also sure that a Police Officer has ever started his or her shift with the desire to shoot a suspect or hurt someone that did not deserve it. Sometimes, bad things happen. Mistakes happen. The last time I checked, I was a human being along with all the other Nurses and Police People in the world. People make mistakes. At least I do.
I guess a Police Person would not be given a gun without extensive training and time to develop the critical thinking skills to enable him or her to decide, when the appropriate time was to shoot that gun and at whom or what. The same is said for a Nurse. A Registered Nurse is a person with a degree. He or She usually has a Bachelors Degree although there is an RN who can have an Associates Degree. Both Degrees take about five years to obtain or longer. The waiting lists to get into Nursing School and grade point average are more stringent than some Medical Schools. Critical Thinking is a must not an option. Nursing School will possibly kill you. I have heard the same for the Police Academy.
I wonder why the Public expects such perfection from Nurses and Police People? Maybe it is because we hold ourselves up to such high standards as well? Again, I do not know. I do know that I have talked to hundreds of Nurses and Police People over the years and most of us feel the same way as though there was no choice but to follow this calling to serve others.
I hope that the Public will give our Police Officers a break. I believe they are doing the best they can with very limited resources and deeply angry neighborhoods. Perhaps the Police force needs some resurfacing and retooling? Perhaps? I personally am fond of them and respect them completely even, when I get a ticket every decade or so.
I say, lets embrace them and give them the benefit of the doubt and assist them to protect us better. We need them.
As a Nurse, I say that we remember that Nurses are people doing the best they can with little to no help wearing many hats working under regulations that can be crushing to the actual care of the Patient. Try and remember that Nurse is doing the best He or She can and will go without food, water and even going to the bathroom before letting your family member go without care. I know, I do it all the time.
This thing about callings, I am sure there are many called to do many things. I only know what I was called to do and I understand or I think I understand this calling of my fellow servant the Police Officer or at least I hope so.
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