Being a nurse can sometimes be very difficult. You often must deal with patients who are not their best selves. I feel like dialysis nurses are a unique breed of nurses. They must care for chronically ill patients who have often been non-compliant. I must admit, if I had to alter my diet and fluid intake very strictly as renal failure patients do, I might not be so compliant either, and I certainly wouldn’t have a sunny disposition. These types of patients can sometimes be difficult to care for, but for the dialysis nurse, that is the only patient they care for. Day in and day out, they stand or sit at the bedside of these patients for hours at a time, providing life-sustaining treatments. They treat these patients without bias or judgment regardless of how non-compliant they have been or what poor life choices they have made to bring them to the point they are in with their health.

Recently, there was a dialysis patient who was a bad diabetic and was very non-compliant. She had made some poor choices that led her to a life of substance abuse, which had ultimately left her homeless. Her poor choices had caused her health to deteriorate so much that at the age of 33, she was facing bilateral amputations of her lower extremities. The patient was extremely upset and cried most of the day. Janet knew how upset the patient was and what she was facing. She went to see her that day and prayed with her before she went to surgery. The patient was very grateful for the care and compassion shown to her. The patient did not survive that day. I take some comfort in knowing that Janet took the time out of her day to pray with the patient, showing her the selfless compassion of Christ. Thank you, Janet, for all that you do and for being the hands and feet of Christ. You display the Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville core values routinely, and I am so proud to have you on my team.