Nursing no grudge, serving with smile

Ashwani Kumar Malhotra

I RECALL an incident when I was about five years old. I was hurt while playing when I fell from a tree. There was a big gash on my head and blood was trickling down my face. My mother cried and I bawled all the way to hospital. A matronly woman in white, starched and spotless skirt and blouse and a cap adorning her head, firmly held my head between her knees, cleaning my wound with a swab of cotton, reassuring my mother and cooing soft and kind words in my ear, while a doctor stitched my wound.

Later, after she had dressed the wound and gave me a tetanus shot, she patted me with a smile, saying, ‘Now that’s a good boy,’ and gave me a candy from her pocket.

Who was this matronly woman, I would often wonder! As I grew up, I joined medical college, working with these women, the nurses, affectionately called ‘sisters’, who assist doctors, flitting from ward to ward and operating theatres, working tirelessly day and night. Even after four decades of working with these sisters, I am in awe of them as they serve the sick and infirm selflessly, making their discomfort, pain and fears go away with their mere smile, touch and comforting, soothing voice.

To acknowledge and laud the roles of nurses, the International Nurses Day is celebrated across the world on May 12 every year to mark the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, who is also their ideal. This year’s theme is, ‘A voice to lead — Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health’.

Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy, in a well-to-do family. In those days, women of her social stature were not encouraged to work as a nurse as it was considered a lowly profession. Florence, who had it in her mind to work as a nurse, learned nursing and began to work as a nurse. It was during the Crimean war that broke out in 1853 that she gained the nickname of ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ as she would walk among the wounded soldiers with a lamp in her hand.

One cannot forget the services of the men and women who join the nursing profession, for whom following her ideals is a dream come true, yet often, they are lowly paid for their long working hours far away from their homes, and, at times, face abuse. Their services are hardly acknowledged. No wonder then, those nurses are vying for greener pastures on the soils of Canada, America, Australia and England. As a result, we are facing an estimated shortage of two lakh nurses. And yet, they continue to serve and smile!

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