In Response to: My old stethoscope
Dear Editor,
The article, My Old Stethoscope by Nurse Maria O’Toole Corey, struck me in a profound way as I lament on how objects can became integral pieces in our nursing practice and not always in a practical way. I am seated at my desk looking around at the items I have carefully laid around me in an effort to remind me why it is I do what I do as a Nurse Care Manager and Emergency Room Nurse. For example, I have a Weeping Buddha statue that I sometimes rest my hand on so that he may absorb those heavy emotions after a particularly difficult day or phone call such as a call earlier this week where I listened to a mother cry about her young daughter’s early onset dementia diagnosis. I pray that I am able to do enough. Also on my desk are my children’s sonogram pictures and other pictures of family members, so that I am reminded to care for each patient as compassionately as I would if they were my own family. I have pieces of my parents’ nursing careers on my desk such as my mother and father’s original name badge pins so that I can evoke the courage and strength to carry on their nursing legacies. The list could continue on and on but the most important item I look at daily is a picture of a young me, I’m floating in a pool with my mother and sisters all of us gathered in an embrace. I’m seated in a flotation device with a headband covering my ear as I suffered from recurrent ear infections requiring frequent doctors visits and tympanic tubes. I like looking at this picture of little me because in my job serving other, in my job as a nurse, I find my passion and my purpose. Each day I honor that little me, I make her proud and tell her we did it, we accomplished our dream of becoming a nurse.
Victoria Mills, RN, BSN
Cambridge, MA
