I stand here today incredibly proud. Proud of those before me.
Less than one year ago I sat in the hospital directors office and
panicked. We wondered how we would set up a clinic and staff it with
Malagasy nurses, where would we find the nurses? Where would we start? I
drew a time line on the white board and we started making plans. Plans
that seemed somewhat inconceivable. But I knew that just has he had been
in my past, that God would be with me in my future and all things will
be possible through him. After countless prayers, meetings and emails,
things started taking off.
In the last weeks of May I interviewed around 50 people for a place
in the OBF training program. Some were impressive and encouraging. Some
were worrying, offering bribes and not really having a clue. One
qualified nurse answered my question “what is a fistula?” by replying “a
fistula is a tree that grows inside the womb, it grows and grows until
the women dies” and so we had many interesting encounters. Many of you
may think that during that interview, as you were nervous and all
dressed up, that there was a right answer to all of those questions, but
you would be wrong. I trusted God to lead me through those interviews, I
trusted God that he would bring the right people. All of you are here
because you first impressed me with either your knowledge, your outlook
on life, your attitude or your efforts to speak to me in English even
though you had only just started learning the language the week before.
But for many of those questions there was not a right answer. I was
looking at the heart behind the answer and I believe God has brought you
all here for a reason.
One questions I asked you all, lets see if you can remember, was
..”what do you think makes a good OBF nurse” I explained that the
patients would be emotionally distressed, outcast, smelly and I asked …
“what makes you think you could be an excellent OBF nurse”. Many of you
told me with confidence that you can do it. That you are trained and
will work hard and that you can do it. I believed you then and I still
believe you. But I think that during this time your answers may have
changed. I think that now you would answer that it is not just knowing
how to physically nurse a patient. It is not just how to empty a
catheter or how to remove a vaginal pack, but it is more.
I hope that you have and will continue to learn that nursing is not
just a science. It is not just drug calculations, fluid balance charts,
vital signs or pain scales. It is about loving others, having compassion
when no one else will, educating someone to save their life, carefully
and tenderly breaking bad news, encouraging countless patients to
continue treatment, take their medications or simply love them selves.
None of these things are measurable and they are not science, this is
where Nursing becomes an art.
Maya Angelou the author and poet said:
“As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul
and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may forget
your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
You see nursing to me is an expression of Gods love, he loves us so
that we can love others, he walks with us in our biggest trials and
hardest moments so that we can walk with others, he comforts us under
his wings when we have nothing left to give so that we can comfort
others, he makes us sore on the wings of eagles and empowers us to take
bold steps, so that we can encourage others.
Florence Nightingale said this:
Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an
exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s
work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble,
compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s
spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of
Fine Arts.”
Preparing the materials required for a catheterisation, thinking through an explanation for your patient to keep them calm and carrying it all out with immaculate sterility for the wellbeing of your patient is art and science, hand in hand. And I am with Florence Nightingale that it is a very fine art.
You have each shown courage and bravery during this time of training.
You have stepped into a different culture, a different way of thinking,
where everything you did yesterday has now been changed and modified in
to something new. You have learnt everything I can possibly teach about
obstetric fistula and you have done it all in a language you started
learning less than one year a go.
I get excited when I see you comforting patients, encouraging
patients and showing compassion as that is something that is so lacking
in this world. I get excited when you get drug calculations right and
when you teach other nurses what to do.
This is why I am proud.
But . . .
This is not a time to grow comfortable. To stop learning. This is
only the beginning. You have been given an incredible opportunity, to
learn from a state of the art hospital ship, to work with some of the
most experienced fistula surgeons and nurses in the world and there is
more.
The future for you is exciting. You have a chance to be the beginning
of the end of fistula in your country. You can do more than nurse
fistula patients, you can educate on prevention or carry out research on
treatment. I have high hopes and this is just the start. So don’t stop
in this war against fistula, don’t stop learning and don’t get
comfortable. Don’t ever get hard to the stories you hear, those stories
that break your heart and bring forth compassion are so important.
It is this that reminds us that fistula is not just a hole, it s so much more.
So think again “what does it take to be a OBF nurse”
because you are one….
You have completed the exam and passed, you have worked hard in practice and have succeeded but, I urge you to continue… continue to learn because there is always more to learn, continue to grow because there is always room to grow, and with each passing day refine the art of being an obstetric fistula nurse that cares with a love that God reveals to you and that can only come from Him.
Educator out.
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