Honoring nurses for Nurse Appreciation Week

Nurses have to be tough enough to handle life-or-death situations, yet soft enough to comfort and understand patients. It’s Nurse Appreciation Week, and ABC-7 stopped by the Hospitals of Providence to get an idea of what it takes to be a nurse.

“First of all, it takes a very special person to become a nurse. Without them, doctors cannot function.” Said ABC-7 medical contributor Dr. Sharma.

Dr. Sharma tells ABC-7 that she probably learns more from her relationship with nurses than they do from her.

RN Yodelid Hernandez agrees that a healthy relationship between doctors and nurses is essential to patient care.

“They teach me things like how to be selfless, how to be patient, how to persevere, and without them, I wouldn’t be where I am. I think they understand we spend most of the time with the patients. We know them a little bit better than they do,” Yolanda Said.

Along with communication, ABC-7 is told compassion is essential to being a nurse, especially when dealing with difficult patients. Nurses have to come to understand that the patient didn’t choose to be there, nor did their family. It’s just learning how you would like to be treated if it were your loved one in that bed, or you for that matter.

Despite nurses’ long hours and challenging situations, ABC-7 was told there’s nothing more rewarding than helping others heal.

“Whenever I see one of the little ladies that is going home, and she’s like, ‘you know what, come give me a hug’, and they give me a blessing, that’s the best part”

If you would like to thank a nurse, but don’t know how, we have a link on our website with some ideas to help out. Just visit our homepage, kvia.com.