by Sr. Úna Ní Riain MMM (1931-2022)                         Ireland                        08.09.2024

There is tremendous satisfaction in caring for other people, especially at a time when they have special needs. Nursing is exciting too! I am a Nurse tutor now and, when the students are going to the wards for the first time, I always notice an important change in them, something different from when they start the theoretical aspect of their training. Later, when I ask them ‘how are you getting on?’ or ‘do you like it?’ they are bubbling over with enthusiasm, and tell me ‘Yes, we love it, we just love caring for the patients.’ I like to think that the tremendous satisfaction they get from caring for the sick will remain with them throughout the whole of their lives.

This was my experience. When I was a young nurse, I couldn’t wait for morning to come until I could go on duty and begin caring again for my patients again. Of course, there are many different types of nursing career today, but for me bedside nursing as a hospital nurse, which is my line, has been a source of great satisfaction. Many nurses develop a real concern for the patient. Very often the patient is unaware of this – they may be unconscious or extremely ill – but in my years of nursing I have worked with many nurses who care about their patients from the depths of their hearts, and I think most patients do not realise this.

I never wanted to be a doctor. I think I have enough intelligence and education to have studied medicine, but the roles are quite distinct. A doctor is basically concerned with making the diagnosis and ordering the treatment and of course the doctor’s relationship with the patient is a caring one also. But the nurse spends much more time with patients, assisting them with what they cannot do alone, and helping to restore them to independence as soon as possible.

When I became a Tutor, I missed the bedside nursing.Later in life, I was glad I had become a Tutor because bedside nursing takes a lot of energy. I get plenty of satisfaction from teaching, but the reason is different. Now it is not the personal satisfaction of seeing someone I nursed get back their health and independence but knowing that I am handing on my skills to others and trying to foster the idealism of our profession in our students.

Clinical proficiency is essential. But I stress the word idealism because nursing has to do with more than this. The nurse needs to have a caring attitude, genuine kindness, concern for the dignity of the patient, and sensitivity to the relatives. What I am saying, I suppose, is that there is a role for the heart as well as for the hands and the head. In my work as a Tutor, I would hope that as well as teaching the clinical skills, my students will absorb these ideals of attitude, and that, after I am gone, the ripple effect of my work will be like a stone cast into water; the results will still be rippling out and bringing care and kindness and compassion to those who need it most.