Nurse Marge in Charge

Dear  Nurse Marge,

Why are nurses so bad at taking care of themselves?  We KNOW everything there is to know about keeping healthy and yet so many nurses smoke and drink.  One of my co-workers is a very non-compliant diabetic: she fainted once at work two years ago and even now doesn’t eat the way she should.  It just blows my mind!

Signed,

Common Sense

Dear Common Sense,

Why would people who:

• spend most of their time caring for others
• in an exhausting, demanding environment
• where resources are scarce
• support even rarer
• who have the constant pressure of economic uncertainty hanging over their heads
• schedules devised by “management professionals” throwing darts at the calendar at random
• patients who expect miracle diagnosis and treatment all in thirty minutes or less

while balancing the needs of their family, partner, and pets sometimes fail to take less than ideal care of themselves?  I’ve no idea.

Do you know what comes right after common sense in the dictionary? Compassion.

Good Luck!

Nurse Marge