A day after my birthday, I am still required to go to the hospital for our unit meeting. To avoid being penalized, I came in early and when I arrived I was told that a patient gave me a cake as a birthday present. I was trying to dish out the idea until I opened up that box and saw this:

That patient was the one who underwent Bentall procedure for his triple A and will be discharged today. I hurriedly went to this room to thank him. He barely recognized me because I was not in my uniform and I was wearing eyeglasses. After a few seconds of recalling who I was, he told me: You’re the one with the sad eye.. The one who almost cried with me when I was at te lowet part of my life.
Seriously, I cannot remember being emotional when I was his bedside nurse although I was told during the tran-in admission from the surgical ICU that he has had episodes of depressions there reaching the point of being combative.
I am glad that he’s okay and I also found out that he lives a few blocks from home.

After a month of being an orientee, I still feel new to the nursing career. I still have not gotten the hang of the job description and as I carry out my duties, I am thinking that nurses are indeed the unsung heroes of the hospital. They are the ones up on their feet 24/7 that translates to being the heartbeat of the hospital and yet they are underpaid. The tasks are physically and intellectually demanding and I am thinking that if the job is the same as the one abroad, I would rather fly out for a greener pasture as the salary is not enough to support he expenses for medications for the illness or injuries that one might develop in performing her duty.
This just crossed my mind as I was at patient’s bedside doing the morning care. I might consider doing the Dallas job search search as suggested by a colleague is who about to test the nursing career in the US.