The National Nurses Association recognizes May 6th as National Nurses Day. In keeping with a similar holiday a few days later, COTA would like to think that as well as Mother's Day, National Nurses Day should be every day.
The nursing profession is viewed through the prism of the need at the moment. If you have no medical concerns, and you just happen to know a neighbor or relative who is a nurse, public sentiment tends to see nurses as emotionally connected and overall friendly people. Kind, caring and competent would be three adjectives that come to mind.
However, if you or a loved one are sick, and you suddenly find yourself in an emotionally charged and frightening medical situation, your view of the nurse assigned you can change. This person, once a stranger, is now responsible for the life of yourself or your loved one. Looking through the spectacles of fear can change our outlook and our reactions. Many COTA board members and volunteers have stood by the bedside of ill relatives in the last year, we understand this fear both professionally and personally.
How would we as patients, feel if our nurses didn't speak our language, came from another country and didn't always understand the nuances of our culture?
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| Guatemalan women waiting for care in COTA clinic |
What would make us sit in long lines, waiting for care that we may or may not understand, hoping for a chance to be attended to by people unlike ourselves?
There is only one reason: trust. Believing that your nurse, whether a stranger or a neighbor, will be:
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| Kind |
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| Caring |
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| and Competent | | |
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Happy Nurses Day to to all of our Children of the Americas nurses. You make the world a better place both here and in Guatemala.
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