This counted cross stitch angel holding an infant was done on raw linen using embroidery floss, specialty metallic threads, and beads over several months time. Though the angel is officially known as the “Angel of the Sea” (pattern by Marilyn Imblum-Leavitt, designer), I prefer to think she represents the legions of guardian angels watching over us all.
Nurses pray. A lot, some of the time, all of the time. It depends on what is happening with the patient, the family, the unit, the staff. Religious affiliation matters not. An informal show of hands at a recent national conference on death and dying confirmed that as novice nurses most of us had uttered the same prayer when caring for our first dying patient, “please, don’t let him/her die on my shift; on my watch”. Whether we worked in the intensive care unit (my choice), or hospice, or home (others choices) we strove to deliver quality patient care and sustain the patient through another shift. And when we left the unit, the hospice, the bedroom we said a silent prayer of thanks.
Caring for patients and families is hard. Caring for dying patients and their families is harder. Though no longer a novice nurse, I still pray when entering the hospital for my shift. I still say a prayer of thanks at the end of my shift. Along with that prayer, I now visualize an angel keeping watch over the patient, the family, the unit, and the staff until next we meet.
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