Nurses have to be very special people. The amount of flexibility a nurse must display in one shift is incredible. Last night was one of those nights.

I was getting report from the previous nurse when my direct admission arrived. A direct admission is the most challenging of all. We have little or no information about a patient who is directly admitted. Basically, a direct admission tends to be more work for a nurse than a patient who came from the emergency department or another hospital or floor.

So, as soon as my shift started, I had to get this new patient settled in, see my other four patients who I’d never worked with before, and discharge one of them to home.

A few hours into my shift, I suddenly learned that one of my patients needed to be transferred to another floor. The plan was to give report on the patient who was being transferred to the nurse coming in, but since I’d been working with the patient for four hours, it made more sense from me to call report to the next floor.

Meanwhile, I still had to pick up a patient from another nurse while calling report on the patient to be transferred.

Once the nursing assistant and I returned from taking the patient to the other part of the hospital, it was time for me to give all of my patients their medications. However, this was not the end of my day.

The second admission of my eight-hour shift arrived 10 minutes before I was supposed to give report to the night nurses. After reporting off to the next nurses, I finished up my paperwork, arriving home at about 1:30 in the morning.

It was a busy, long, stressful Friday night shift. I was running the whole time. I didn’t get my break. I didn’t even get to sit at all, much less eat anything. I know that the other nurses were very busy, too.

Nights like these are disappointing to me, because although the patients got the care that they needed and deserved, I wished that there had been more time to sit and talk with the patients, to get to know them.

There is so much more to nursing than performing tasks. That’s what keeps me going, knowing that there will be other nights when I will get to sit and talk with my patients. But even on the days and nights that I don’t, I can go home knowing that I’ve helped the patients on their paths to optimal health.

Nurses are very special people. I truly am humbled to count myself as one of them.

I’d like to dedicate this column to my mother, who worked as a nurse for many years while raising a family, and to my sisters who also are in the nursing profession. I strive to be as successful at my job as they have been. They truly are blessings to their patients.

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