Ipswich local Emma Holdcroft is proud to be a nurse.
May 12 is International Nurses Day and International Midwive’s Day was May 5.
These days highlight the vital role that these nurses play in everyone’s lives.
Nurses are the glue that holds the health service together.
Nurses are highly skilled and compassionate professionals but are also expected to roll their sleeves up and clean up bed pans, stay on their feet for long shifts and sometimes deal with emotional patients or family members.
It’s not an easy job. But as West Moreton Health’s Emma Holdcroft explains, she wouldn’t do anything else.
“It’s definitely a calling. People who get into nursing generally stay in nursing for a long time,” Ms Holdcroft said.
“Nursing gives me the opportunity to help people. People come to hospital emergency departments for help, maybe with chest pain, or to have a baby and you will see a nurse from when you first walk into the emergency department until they are waving you goodbye.”
Knowing what she does during her shift really makes a difference is what Ms Holdcroft holds dear.
“The thing with nursing is sometimes you have the hardest day. A really hard day,” Ms Holdcroft said.
“But you’ll always come back the next day.
“When you are on shift, you feel every emotion you have, compassion, love, sad, angry, it’s what separates us from robots, we add that human touch to it.
“Knowing that you have contributed to someone’s life in a positive way is what brings you back, you think – yep, I’ll get up and do it again.”
“Nurses and midwives dedicate their lives to caring for others,’’ Dr Henderson said.
“Our nurses are passionate, caring and dedicated clinicians. This year we are celebrating the role that every one of our nurses and midwives play as teachers and leaders of their profession.”
So if you know a nurse, take the time to celebrate them.
Say thank you for all that you do.
They belong to a noble profession and are generally the unsung heroes in the medical world.
Nursing Graduate of the Year – Rachel Crawford
UQ International Nurse of the Year – Felicity Morgan
WMHHS/Nurses Association Nurse of the Year – Minu Parayil
International Aid Nurse of the Year – Donna Long
UQ Midwife of the Year – Natalie Poole
WMHHS/Nurses Association Midwife of the Year – Caitlin Morrell
Florence Nightingale
‘The Lady with the Lamp’ is the world’s most famous nurse and is credited with being the founder of modern nursing.
She served in hospitals during the Crimean War in the 1800’s and improved sanitation and living conditions.
She implemented hand washing and other sanitary methods which reduced mortality rates greatly, as mortality in military hospitals at the time, were higher than the actual battlefields.
She received her moniker after it was reported in The Times: ‘She is a “ministering angel” without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.’
International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday, 12 May, each year.
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