I am Your Nurse

Originally written by Beth Perry (2009, p. 24), my additional verse, italicized.

I ease your pain.

I bathe your skin.

I make your bed.

I help you dress.

I meet your needs.

You heal me.

I am your nurse.

I feed you meals.

I give you rest.

I tend your wounds.

I sense your suffering.

I answer your questions.

You teach me.

I am your nurse.

I know your pain.

I share your loneliness.

I feel your despair.

I taste your joy.

I sense your spirit.

You touch my soul.

I am your nurse.

I wipe your tears.

I share your triumphs.

I see the lines of worry crease your face.

I see… you.

I advocate for your needs.

You inspire me.


And sometimes,

for just a moment,

I am you,

and you are me,

and we are one.

Together,

we go beyond the limits

of ordinary experience,

to live the extraordinary.

Beth Perry’s (2009) poem beautifully showcases how nursing is a blend of vast knowledge and human connection; how nursing can be both intimate and objective, the seemingly fleeting and insignificant moments of connection quite possibly being the most significant of all. Perry has captured how the patient’s journey becomes a part of your own, as a nurse and an individual. By sharing in these moments our lives are linked in time and we are forever changed because of these relationships. Actively reflecting through writing and poetry, as Perry has done in this instance about the impact of the therapeutic relationship that is created in each nursing encounter, is vital to each nurses’ continuing development.

Reference
Perry, B. (2009). More moments in time: Images of exemplary nursing. Edmonton, AB: AU Press. Available at: https://www.aupress.ca/books/120158-more-moments-in-time/