Happy Nurses week/month/year

A long time ago I became a nurse on Mother’s Day. I remember thinking it was a bit ironic and also felt a slight bit of guilt from taking the day that normally I’d honor my mother to steal the spotlight. Turns out she was proud of me and doubtful she had an issue with it. And now 20 some years later I am thinking about it, here on Mother’s Day. This year we are doing a ‘Zoom Bake’ where all of my sisters across the country are meeting with our Mom via Zoom to make a fancy french toast brunch together. I will post a picture later if mine comes out in any way that is worth photographing.

This week the first of 5 singles came out! The title track, ‘Take Good Care’ was written by me and Paul Raymond. Paul was one of the first nurses I met at Vanderbilt and he was actually one of the staff that interviewed me. I later learned he played some music and we started doing some collaborations over time. When I started this project last year, I had no idea what would come of it. I knew at least I was writing songs about my current life as a nurse in a pandemic, but I didn’t know if they would be any good! When Paul and I got together, times were questionable. It was in early June 2020 and we had met our fair share of Covid-19 patients by then, and socializing was a big no-no. Since we worked together, it felt a little more safe knowing how seriously we were taking the pandemic. Even so, we took great precautions and wrote the song about 10 feet away from each other at his picnic table. Paul had brought the phrase ‘Take Good Care’ to the session. It’s an expression his sister, also a nurse, used to sign her letters and cards. I really liked the message of taking ‘good’ care, of each other, ‘as this life moves.’

photo: Laura Schneider

Working in Palliative Care shows us how fragile life is at times. Palliative Care is an approach to medicine that attempts to ease symptoms of diseases that can’t be fixed. Paul and I spend our days working with patients and families who are in fragile states. Sometimes they get to go home, and sometimes they do not. We carry so much weight at times and along with our colleagues we’ve learned it’s the most important thing to support each other; to ‘take good care’ of each other; throughout a shift, throughout a lifetime. The work we do is both rewarding and heartbreaking. I still cry when I witness people having to say good-bye to their loved ones. We try to provide comfort and presence as we go about our days and the nurses, care partners, medical receptionists, environmental services employees and everyone else who agrees to work in the environment does this dance together.

I’m glad that there is a week to celebrate nurses but the truth is I think anyone who works in a hospital, regardless of their role, should be honored. Especially after a year like this where we’ve had to literally risk our lives to remain at the bedside. I don’t see it as heroic, I see it as essential. I believe that the spirit of nurses and care partners is to jump in and see what they can do to help, no matter what. Many times in my career I have been in the right place at the right time to be ‘of service.’ I thank God for helping me to know what to do and when. That is my calling. I don’t know how it will turn out, but I do know I am called to care about putting more love into the world.

I’m thrilled to share these songs each week and tell you more about what it’s like to be a nurse, and also to tell you how much I love the people I work with.

In addition to our song, Paul and I also collaborated to make a video for it. He recently took a course to learn to be a luthier and I asked him to take some footage of the process. I edited it together and it seemed to go along nicely with our tune. I hope that you ‘Take Good Care.’ See you soon. love megan

Video by Megan and Paul