At the beginning of the semester I was assigned to a med-surg floor that I was not particularly fond of for my leadership hours. I had done clinicals there during junior year so I knew some of what I was up against. The floor smells awful; a mixture of stale urine and bad breath hits you as soon as you exit the elevator. The patients are mostly contact precaution patients, which means they have MRSA, VRE, or my all time favorite c.diff. and so I have to gown/glove up everytime I enter the room (total inconvenience). And the patients are fairly intense. Many are on ventilators, have PEG/feeding tubes, are incontinent, morbidly obese (I'm talking 300 hundred pounds and up), etc. Lets just say I may not have had the best attitude. Seeing as I knew I would be spending four weekends, a total of 96 hours, on this floor I immediately took it to the Lord. I was like "ok God I know you have me on this floor for a reason. While I may not like it I want to be the best nurse I can be. Maybe you're trying to teach me something, I don't know why you couldn't teach me it somewhere else! haha. Please help me have a good attitude and be your hands and feet to my patients."
Fast forward to my second weekend on the floor. I had two patients to care for by myself (don't worry a real nurse supervised my care). The first one we'll call Mr. I Don't Want to Stay in my Bed and the second was Mr. Guillain Barre. Mr. I Don't Want to Stay in my Bed is a older man who had an altered mental status secondary to a motorcycle accident. Severely confused he kept trying to get out of his bed. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except he was confused and couldn't really use the right side of his body. Somehow he had managed to sneak off the side of his bed the night before I got there and sustained a cut to his arm. That didn't deter this man from trying to get out of bed repeatedly during my shift. Oh add in his constant diarrhea for count 'em a straight 2 hours and I was very busy to say the least!
Mr. Guillain Barre's wife was in the room with him and diligently was caring for his needs so I didn't do much for him except administer medications and monitor his status. Guillain Barre is an autoimmune disease that attacks your nervous system without warning. This poor man was driving his truck one day when he started to experience vision changes and numbness to his extremities. Hours later he was paralyzed and had to be placed on a ventilator to maintain his respiratory status. Because of the tracheostomy he was unable to speak but his wife had worked with him to mouth words. Although many times I could tell it was frustrating to communicate with me, lets just say I'm working on my reading mouthed words skills, he was very good at telling me what was wrong (he even knew when there were bubbles in his new IV line!).
At the end of the second shift I went to check on Mr. Guillain Barre. His wife began to tear up as she shared with me that for the first time since her husband had been hospitalized I was the only one that actually talked to him. She was moved by the fact that someone actually took the time to talk and interact with her husband. I asked her what normally happened and she said the the nursing staff typically would come in the room do their necessary tasks and walk out. Side note I do not consider what I did those days to take care of Mr. Guillain Barre anything out of the ordinary but what a great testimony to Christ shining through me!
I'm not going to judge the other nursing staff but as she shared this with me my heart broke (we all know it doesn't take a lot to bring tears to my eyes!). See Mr. Guillain Barre has been in the hospital for a month. A MONTH! Patient care, the core of nursing, is well about ... patient care. I know I am not a nurse yet but the day I get so wrapped up with the things I have to do during the shift and forget about the patient laying in the bed is the day I should probably stop nursing.
Anyways as I was driving home and talking with God this beautiful analogy came to mind.
As Christians we get so accustomed and comfortable with our relationship God. He is always there, right before our eyes, in our reach, but in the busyness of our lives we move about hardly acknowledging Him. Like those nurses we do what we "have" to but nothing more. We're satisfied with the dinner table prayer and the verse we read before we go to bed. We check those things off our to do list and carry on with other tasks. Communicating with Him takes time and effort on our part like it did with Mr. Gullain Barre. But if we take that time He will direct us in the right direction. Mr. Guillain Barre was able to tell me what was wrong and how to fix it if I just patiently worked with him. Too many of us just don't even bother communicating unless we NEED or want something.
I, like most Christians am guilty of putting God on the back-burner during the day because there is so much going on. BUT is that ok? Absolutely not. Just like there is a patient in the bed who is vying for the nurses attention God so desperately wants to spend time with us. Its necessary for the relationship to work. We shouldn't settle for the occasional interaction but rather work at making Him a priority.
I want to challenge you to not allow life to get in the way of your relationship with Christ. Don't settle for the bare minimum. Isn't the reason we are on this earth to bring honor and glory to Christ? How can we do that if we don't spend time getting to know Him and allowing Him to transform us?
Just some things to think about. God amazes me how He uses my patients to teach me, and not just nursing skills.
That day I believe He was sweetly saying:
Emily, I'm right here. I will not demand your time and love but I want it.
Our God wants to spend time with us! How great is that? He has done so much for me the least I can do is slow down, take my time and enjoy being in His presence. And allow Him to teach and direct me.
