Heartwarming Stories of Nurses Who Went Beyond Their Call of Duty

Article and Image Content shared from Readers Digest.

When it comes to kindness, compassion, and caring for others, nurses have us all beat. They work long shifts doing many of the tiny, important tasks that keep us healthy, everything from school nurses who fix booboos with Band-Aids and send kids back to the playground, to nurses in hospitals who perform complicated, life-saving maneuvers on the sickest patients every day. During the coronavirus crisis, nurses are the first line of defense in clinics against the ravages of COVID-19. Many even exceed the already arduous call of duty. These are some of their stories

School nurse provides masks for the community

The pandemic closed schools but didn’t keep elementary school nurse Amber Mehrkens from helping others. She continued to check the temperatures of the childcare students at the school and those of the teachers preparing for distance learning. When she wasn’t in her office, she was home caring for her four children in Mazeppa, Minnesota. During pockets of spare time, Mehrkens began sewing. She created a few hundred masks with the fabric she had on hand, then placed them on her porch for her neighbors to take at no charge. She quickly depleted her supply of fabric and other supplies. After she and a few friends spent several hundred dollars at a craft store, they asked for donations to cover their costs. With help from her children and a few friends, Mehrkens has sewn over 4,000 masks and provided them to the local fire department and area businesses.

From Bitter to Blessed – Nursing Christmas Story

This Christmas story was written by a nurse we’d call Any Nurse. And just like most nurses, she wasn’t too eager to work on Christmas Day. In fact, she dreaded the shift from the moment her alarm clock woke her up.

But just like most nurses, Any Nurse had to go to the hospital. As soon as she started her shift, IV alarms started beeping, call lights were ringing, and pharmacy techs became busy delivering medications.

While she was busy trying to get an IV in one stick on a patient who badly needed a blood transfusion, a code blue was paged. Her heart jumped and skipped a little imagining that someone’s loved one was coding on such a special day.

Down the hall, she saw Valerie. She’s a 2-year old burn patient, a victim of a kitchen accident. Any Nurse hoped that Valerie wouldn’t have any disfiguring scars. Just imagining Valeria at 13 years old and dealing with those scars made her heart hurt. Any Nurse has a 2-year-old kid.

She went on to help Anita, her nursing assistant. They bathe a 76-year-old patient who was admitted with a stroke. The two of them combed the patient’s thinning hair and applied a red lipstick to her lips. With the patient’s garbled speech, she managed to say “Thank you, dear.”

On her way back to the station, Any Nurse answered a call light from a patient who was cold. She went to the supply room and found several blanket warmers. As she gave one to her patient, she saw her smile as the warmth seeped in.

After her shift, Any Nurse felt really excited to go home, share her day with her husband, and cuddle with her healthy kids.

Story and Image credit shared from Nursebuff.com