Twenty-five-year old Ashley is a nurse in Holy Family Hospital, Okhla, New Delhi. She has been a nurse for three and a half years.
Here are Ashley’s answers to our questions.
- Why I chose this profession:
Nursing is a profession that provides wide opportunities to serve the needy people who lack even basic knowledge about health and sickness. I want to serve the people through proper knowledge and skills. So, I chose this profession.
- The person who inspired me:
My sister is a nurse; she inspired me a lot. She is humble and empathetic to the patients.
- Moments of satisfaction:
The patients’ smiling faces and their satisfied responses make me happy. One of my patients told me, “Sister, when you give me medicine, my pain will subside fast.” Many times, I got blessings from my patients.
- Difficult moments:
During Covid time we had lots of patients. I am part of the ICU staff. We had four patients on ventilators. We struggled to satisfy the needs of these patients.
- Moments of fear:
When patients died.
- Tough part of this job:
Some patients and relatives consider staff nurses as their servants.
- Things I do when patients suffer:
Assess the need of the patient, provide management according to their need.
- Situations hard to bear:
Some younger patients (between 20 and 40 years) die, this is hard to bear.
- Beautiful moments:
I believe that the patient’s satisfaction is the most powerful incentive to improve the quality of our care.
- What our society needs to understand better:
Some people believe that a nurse has just to give medicines, as if that is our only job. Most of the time we are struggling a lot.
- Reasons why Indian nurses prefer to work abroad:
To study nursing we need lots of money. So, we look for jobs with a good salary to solve our financial problems.
- Beautiful things patients and their families say about nurses:
One patient whom I attended said to us, “Really we are thankful to you, because wearing this PPE you are doing a great job.”
- Many nurses pray for their patients. The difference this makes:
A woman had two miscarriages, and was pregnant again for the third time. This was a high risk case; so the doctor advised bed rest till the delivery, but she got better within two days, and the doctor changed his opinion.
- Anything else to add?
The prayerful touch of a nurse makes a big difference in the patient’s condition.
Ashley Mathew
To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe
