People always ask me why I chose nursing as my major. For me, this choice is not accidental; it hides my regret for my grandmother and my original intention to bring warmth to others. The path of nursing is the direction I am determined to pursue.
In the summer of 2019, while I was still preparing for my senior year of high school, the seed of becoming a nurse was quietly planted in my heart. This wish originated from my grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. At that time, I often went home on weekends to help my grandfather, a farmer, cut vegetables. One early morning, we went to the fields in the dark to work. When my grandmother woke up, she went out alone to look for us, walking barefoot and leaning on a wooden stick, wandering on the dirt road.
When we returned from picking vegetables, we found that Grandma had gone missing. The whole family anxiously searched for her for four or five hours before finding her in a daze beside the remote old well. Later, to prevent Grandma from getting lost again, Grandpa reluctantly locked her in the room. The limited range of activity caused her, who was already mobility-impaired, to lose the ability to walk and spend all day in bed. However, Grandpa did not know the nursing knowledge for bedridden patients and did not turn Grandma over in time, leading to severe pressure ulcers and infection on her sacrococcygeal region. Eventually, she passed away due to complications.
This incident became a deep-seated regret in my heart. I always wonder if my grandmother's condition would have been better if I had understood the nursing of pressure ulcers at that time. It is precisely because of this regret that I deeply understand that many patients like my grandmother need professional nursing care. Studying nursing and taking good care of every patient has become a way for me to make up for my grandmother, and it has also become my firm goal.
Since my internship, I have been working in the oncology department for nearly half a year, and my original aspiration has become increasingly firm. At work, a retired aunt praised me, a boy, for speaking softly and doing things carefully. Such a simple recognition filled me with joy. I often make a "little promise" with cancer patients: when they recover and are discharged from the hospital, I will go to their hometown to taste the local specialties. During daily nursing care, while performing my duties, I chat with patients about their daily lives, cheer them up, and provide them with spiritual support through simple words. Watching them regain the courage to fight against illness fills me with a sense of meaning in this job.
"Sometimes to heal, often to help, always to comfort." This phrase has long been engraved in my heart and has become my professional motto. Nursing work may not involve earth-shattering feats, but it exerts a subtle and silent power. As a nurse in oncology, I am willing to adhere to this original intention, treating every patient with love, patience, and care, healing their wounds and soothing their souls. In the ordinary position of nursing, I will do every little thing well, allowing the subtle light of nursing to illuminate every corner in need of warmth.
Author: Wang Xiaoyuan
Editor: Jia Jiguang
First instance: Huang Guifang
Second instance: Jiang Bei
Source: Hainan Cancer Hospital Nursing Official Account