Amazonsmile.org
and designating Hospice of the Valleys as your charity of choice. Amazonsmile offers all that Amazon does, and Hospice of the Valleys will benefit at no cost to you!
6:00PM
Gourmet dinner dessert & wind included, Access to private wine bar, Up close VIP seating, Personal server.
www.HospiceoftheValleys.org
Hospice of the Valleys joins the American Nurses Association in honoring our dedicated nurses for National Nurses Week, May 6-12. The theme this year is nursing: The balance of mind, body, and spirit. We honor and applaud our wonderful nursing staff as they daily pour themselves into their patients and families needs with skill and compassion.Please consider making a donation in the name of your nurse this month. Your gift will allow us to continue providing care to patients and their families regardless of their inability to pay.
Thank You Volunteers!
Dear Friends:I recently saw a powerful and unusual quotation about what it means to be a nurse.
Rawsi Williams wrote:
This quotation gets to the heart of the lived-in reality of being a nurse: the calling of a nurse supersedes all the difficulties and challenges which come with the job. The calling to serve as a nurse elevates the spirit and soul of the nurse to walk in the higher path of a healer. A difficult path, but a rewarding one.
Nurses indeed do what nobody else will do. They care for and tend to sick and broken bodies, they care for wounds and bodily functions, and live face-to-face with human frailty and illness, never forgetting the precious human person ever-present in a broken or diseased frame. Nurses touch the untouchable, sooth the unsoothable, hear the unhearable, and bring healing to those who are told that they cannot be healed. They support those dealing with devastating diagnoses and troubling states of mind, meeting them in all their difficulties with respect and without causing embarrassment.
Nurses act in a way that nobody else will do. With exquisite care and professional acumen, they care for their patients without judgment. Their skill is balanced with gentleness and overarching kindness, and a patience extending often beyond human limits. Nurses find and share joy in places where many could only see despair. They have the rare gift of caring which uplifts the souls of their patients. They are beings of faithfulness.
As Rawsi Williams suggests, nurses go through a lot. They experience human suffering first hand on a level most of us could never imagine. They daily walk through frustrating and difficult human situations which often have no immediate resolution. They are often called to be the problem solvers for issues which have no good solutions, or to be a bearer of bad news. Nurses have personally, and often, experienced death and seen human tragedy. Nurses have learned how to work creatively within a sometimes not-so-friendly hierarchy of medical professionals. They are resilient.
Nurses are tough and highly skilled…they are funny and inspiring, and they work hard. Maya Angelou helps us recall the truth of any of us who have been cared for by a special nurse: “They may not remember your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Happy Nurses Week to all our very special hospice nurses,
Dr. Lynn L. Euzenas
Nurses May Not Be Angels but They Are the Next Best Thing
Anonymous
National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, which is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Webster’s Dictionary defines nursing as “the work of caring for the sick or injured or infirm.” While this definition is accurate, I feel that it does not adequately describe all that nurses do. In my opinion what makes nurses so special is not so much about what they do (although what they do is AMAZING); it is mostly about why they do what they do. Although each nurse has their unique story to tell about why they selected nursing, one thing they all share in common is that they feel that nursing is more than just an occupation, they feel it is a calling.
Florence Nightingale is recognized as the founder of the modern day nursing movement. She was born in 1820 to wealthy English parents while traveling abroad in Italy and was named after the City of Florence, where they were staying when she was born. She was a bright and beautiful young woman and her parents had great expectations for her including marriage and a rewarding social life. When she was 17, Florence experienced a “divine calling” which ultimately led her to pursue training as a nurse. This is especially noteworthy because during this period in history nurses were typically looked down upon as poor, unskilled individuals of questionable moral behavior. Contrary to her family’s wishes, Florence never married but instead devoted herself fully to serving others and gained recognition for her pioneering nursing work during the Crimean War in 1854. She then returned to England and founded the St. Thomas Nursing School in London which laid the foundation of the modern nursing movement.
In 2016 Nurses were ranked as the most trusted professionals by Gallup Polling for the 15th consecutive year, followed by pharmacists and physicians. (It seems ironic that the politicians who set healthcare policy were ranked lowest). One of the reasons why nurses consistently score so high is that they are devoted to providing the very best of care to their patients. I feel honored to work with the dedicated and compassionate nurses at Hospice of the Valleys and I hope you will join me as we recognize them during Nurses Week.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Thursday, June 29, 2017
