from the trenches

"then it came to me. not the idea that 'things could be worse' - because i agree that being in a concentration camp would be "worse" than having your patient bleed out in pittsburgh - but that, the relative worseness of particular situations, is irrelevant. what comforted me while one prisoner beat another to death in "The Counterfeiters" was the realization that, with so much cruelty in the world, all any of us can do is try to make our own piece of it better. the violence and the cruelty, the illness and the blood, will not stop. but i can put my hand on my patient's shoulder and ask if she's in pain. i can look into her eyes as she dies and then try to pump life back into her. i can offer up my own hope, regardless of how futile that hope is, and whenever it is needed, keep offering it. i can, within the limits of my own life and limb, always try."

-excerpt from Critical Care by Theresa Brown, RN

-emphasis mine