Of all the medical professionals out there, doctors seem to have the most prestigious jobs. They are the ones who go through the most schooling, and who presumably have the most knowledge about what goes on in our bodies when we're sick.
But we can't forget all the other health care professionals who work just as hard for our well being. Some of them clean up after our sick and elderly, while others have deeply personal and close relationships with their patients and families. They all have different roles, but all of their jobs are crucial.
A nurse named Charmaine Briggs is defending her job after a stranger rudely told her that she might as well be a "health care assistant" who cleans up the messes of the elderly. She understandably took offense at this comment and fired back on Facebook.
You can read her post below.
Today someone said to me, “Why would you want to be a nurse and wipe people’s asses for a living? You may as well just be a HCA.” This made my blood boil.
No one is “just a HCA,” for a start. I’ve been a health care assistant before being a student nurse and you are your patient’s only support in some cases. We are the staff with the patients 24/7. We are the ones changing the beds, changing our own clothes for the fourth time due to other people’s bodily fluids, the ones mopping up the nosebleeds and cleaning commodes on a loop.
We are up close and personal with our patients – we hold their hands when they fear the unknown, we listen to them when they need someone to talk to, we’ve cried with them. We work around the clock 365 days of the year, we sometimes sit with patients who have no family so they simply don’t pass away alone.
It is physically and emotionally challenging, and one day you’ll need that help from “just a health care assistant”, [and] not just when you’re old. You don’t know what tomorrow holds.
Nurses save lives everyday. I don’t know if people think it is only doctors who save your life, but it’s really not the case. Everyone comes together as a team and doctors wouldn’t be able to do their job without nurses, as nurses wouldn’t without HCA’s.
Some people really do need to stop and think what they say to people, as one day you might need that life-saving help from the people you run down.
Please SHARE to thank all nurses for all of their hard work and dedication!
