Healers in their own right

Healers in their own right

They trooped past me in their uniforms indulgent with their daily chores conforming to the chart laid out by the doctors. With trays and stethoscopes, medicines and apparatus they popped in and out of rooms serving the sick patients with all their might. What set them apart was the beaming smile that seemed fresh as the morning, clear as the dew that reflects on the grass with the morning sunshine. 

The last couple of weeks I laid siege to a hospital in town keeping my mother company as she recuperated from a severe bout of lung infection. All kind of doctors and nurses, cleaning staff, dieticians and more paid us a visit umpteen times each trying to add to the overall recovery process.

While the doctors were elegant and calm, firm in their views, generous with their advice, what caught my attention were the nurses on duty. Some of them petite, some brisk, some eager,  some brimming at the edge, some of them simply out of place, some putting you off at first glance  while some others always welcoming with their sweet and radiant smile.

The ones who were petite seemed to be like the mothers of yore, full of substance who though short and weak worked their magic all day long, running through the family chores till they were exhausted to bed. Though they were petite they never missed a beat and ensured that the family was filled and satisfied to keep them going for another day.

The ones who were brisk were darting around like darts on a dartboard in and out of the rooms with timing and precision. Their energy radiated beyond them and made some of us with drooping shoulders to realize that the end was only the beginning. I am sure that even while they darted around in the hospital rooms, they were left with enough and more to take care of the family once they were home.

Eager is a term to describe someone who is ready to listen, learn and volunteer during a process. The eager ones were exactly that, waiting to please with all the commands that were thrown at them. They were like the newly recruited cadets, fresh from the disciplining classes and bursting to put their learning to practice.

Some of them were brimming from ear to ear, joyful at the chance to interact and listen and renewing their nursing vows to serve the sick like their mentor Florence Nightingale. One look at them and their energy and enthusiasm seemed to flow into the sagged being of the patient lifting them from the pits helping them on the course to recovery. They felt like joyful kids who had entered a shop and found a jar full of candies with no one keeping watch.

During my numerous soft skills program conducted with fresher B Tech students I would ask a familiar question whether they were there on their own accord or were pushed into it by their parents, and the majority would concede that they were there because of the push factor. Such students would be out of place even if they succeeded in completing their course because their soul was not in the learning.

This is how I describe the ones who I found in the Nursing station a tad out of place. Probably they were forced or goaded into the profession by their mentors when their heart was not in it. They gave the impression of being detached from the happenings around them even as they went about their chores in a mechanical manner.

There are some who give a sense that they don’t like you. Whenever they come across you they send a negative vibe which makes you feel unwanted. They tend to rue the fact that patients visit hospitals. I am reminded of a colleague during my banking days. Those were the time of big fat ledgers with computerization being a far cry and pulling out those ledgers every time a customer walked in to withdraw or put in money needed an effort.

This friend of ours would always complain in Hindi which I shall try to translate thus “why do these guys walk in early morning can’t they sit at home don’t they have any work” all because a customer comes to him with a withdrawal slip asking to withdraw amount that is legally his. But my friend was at pains to understand why customers should walk in to the bank at all.

His remarks suggesting, that he should be let free to idle throughout the day. Because customers walking in meant a flurry of activity and any activity required effort which he was unwilling to make in the mind. He also had this devil in the mind that though he wanted to get paid at the end of the month he expected to do no work. His conflict arose because he never understood the service industry and its essence.

Finally the ones wide with the radiant smile, the sweet scenting smile that would help a patient recover. They had the magic that helped the body to respond to medication. They were like salt that is added to make food tasteful and delicious. I would like to believe that a patient is propped up due to the smile that fills the room as the nurse walks in.

Their sweetness comparable to sweetened yogurt that could be had any season without reason. They did not have to be part of the exercise; they can stand apart and make a difference in the drooping moral of the patient and their relatives, their contribution to the recovery of a patient imminently on display in the feedback pages.

God bless them all since the services they provide cannot be compared with another and the smile that they possess lingers on much beyond the time a patient is discharged and well on their way home. Florence Nightingale has truly pioneered a brand second to none.