The Heart of the Matter: Inspiring Stories of Nursing

By Amanda Debons

Being a nurse isn’t always easy. But as the saying goes, "they didn’t say it would easy, they just said it would be worth it.” For Lindsay Mays, this holds true every day. Mays, who works in the Progressive Care Unit at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, AZ, said that she knows she is a better person because of her career.

“Nursing has affected not only my career but also my personal life for the better,” she said. “My interpersonal skills have been strengthened and fine-tuned, which has helped my self confidence.”

Nurses aren’t the only ones who reap the benefits of enjoying their job, patients also benefit from having a nurse who enjoys what they do. Monna Taulbee, who recently had her gallbladder removed, described how thankful she was to have nurses that really cared.

“They (the nurses) were very confident in their care giving, which made me feel more comfortable,” Taulbee said. “They were friendly and treated me like a friend, not a patient.”

Taulbee, like many others who have emergency surgery, said she dreads hospitals and was terrified to go into surgery, but it was her nurses who made her feel at ease.

“You can tell that they care about their patients and that they like being a nurse,” Taulbee said. “In my opinion, my hospital stay was not as bad as I imagined because of the nurses there.”

Natalie Hamlin agrees. She said it was the nurses who cared for her at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, Calif. Who made her as comfortable as she could be during her 20 hours of labor.

“They checked on me a lot and because of this I feel as though nothing was overlooked,” Hamlin said. “Even though I was in labor a very long time, I really wasn’t in too much discomfort because there was always a nurse making sure I was alright.”