By Scrubadoo’s Jen Hankin
I was overwhelmed at the responses I gathered for last month’s Your Stories: Why I Love Medicine, I just had to create this second installment. I believe that ‘ah ha’ moment, when you realize you chose the right career path is a pivotal moment in everyone’s life and should be shared. So here ya go.
Do you have a good story to share? Please do, just leave us a comment below.
“When I was eight years old my mother had a massive stroke. It left her without the ability to speak or move her left arm and left leg. I watched as the speech therapists taught my mom to speak and write again, and I watched the physical therapists help my mom walk again.
My mom had intense physical and speech therapy, but the ones who spent the most time with her were the nurses. They treated my mom as if she was the only patient in the hospital. They walked her when physical therapists weren’t there. They educated my dad and my siblings about how to assist my mom while she was in the hospital and when we got to go home. The nurses treated us like people, and not just another patient. The most important thing was the nurses made Mom feel at ease when she was scared of the unknown.
As a young girl, I witnessed all of the wonderful care my mom received from the nurses. Twenty four years have gone by since my wonderful mother had her stroke, and I have been a nurse for nine of those years. I decided that was what I wanted to dedicate my life to; taking care of others.
Because of the fantastic nursing care my mother received, my life was, and is, forever changed. This was my “I love medicine moment.”
– Cindi Jobe RN, BSN; Texas Regional Medical Center at Sunnyvale
“I love what I do. I am a dermatologist so I get to be a detective, an artist, and a scientist. I solve all kinds of medical mysteries and I can also save lives when I find a melanoma. When I put filler in someone’s face, I’m like a sculptor with the perfect eye for proportion. It’s not always easy, sometimes I have patients that complain and don’t pay the bill. Sometimes I have patients that leave my practice for no apparent reason without saying goodbye. But all in all I love my job.”
–Debra Jaliman MD
“My grandmother helped define medicine for me very early in my studies. She said, “you realize that with all your education, you are still called to serve?” I think it is the most wonderful vocations to be able to take something I know or can do and use it to relieve someone else’s pain or anxiety or confusion. I love new technology and I am beginning to enter into robotic surgery of the larynx, but even the coolest new you doesn’t eclipse the satisfaction of trying to help. I am probably most rewarded when patients tell me I was kind to them or made them feel less worried or that they trust me.”
–Dr. H Steven Sims, M.D., FICS; Director at Chicago Institute for Voice Care
“There are so many moments I have found in which I loved medicine. Taking a piece of steel from a child’s eye at an amusement park, taking glass out of a woman’s hand, just making a difference in lives from birth to death is a bittersweet experience with rewards like none other. “
–Karon White Gibson, RN, CCM
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The other reasons I love medicine are that it has given me a million opportunities in my career and life….writing the book, Nurses On Our Own about my adventures in business and Nursing; producting and hosting the television and Internet Show , Outspoken with Karon RN at Ustreamtv.com on all types of medicine. I don’t have to go to the movies, I would rather watch my own life! I have been the Nurse in an amusement park, on movie sets with celebrities on Dr. Detroit, Risky Business and others. I have been able to touch many lives of viewers and make a difference with my guests who were previously unknown. Karon White Gibson RN, CCM asktvnurse@yahoo.com Americantvproductions.com President of AmericaNurse.