It all just comes down to caring

Since Cindy is in nursing school and has been working at a nursing home as a Nurse's aid for over a year now, her future has been on her mind. Yesterday while we were talking she mentioned that a friend had applied for a nurses aid job at the local children's hospital. The friend was supposedly told that they didn't use nurse's aids not to look for even an interview. My first response was shock , then disbelief. It just so happens that a friend from church is a supervising nurse at this very hospital so I stated that i would have to ask if this was really so. Cindy nodded but then said, I don't think I would want to work there anyway. Hmmmmm, OK I didn't suggest that she should I was just saying, however I was intrigued, why not I asked? Well, she replied.Parents of sick children don't seem to realize that there child is not the only child in the hospital and sometimes they need non emergency assistance and another has more urgent needs so they have to wait and from what I hear they don't take too well to waiting. These words brought me back to when Robby was an infant and some of our stays at the hospital with him.Yes, I remember having to wait sometimes for simple things. To her credit I also remember in all my stress being annoyed at this situation at times. But honestly what stuck in my mind was not the waiting but one wonderful nurse that he had. Now this nurse did make us wait from time to time , yes but that was never mentioned when I wrote a letter to the Hospital's CEO. What was mentioned was how this nurse brought me a pillow and blanket when I was spending several nights in a recliner, usually with Robby in my arms. I mentioned how thankful I was when this nurse brought in a turkey sandwich and bowl of chicken broth one afternoon when Robby was having a bad day and I would not leave his side, knowing that Mike would not be able to come in until after work to bring me lunch. Yes this nurse cared. Though she was not super nurse nor wonder woman she cared and it showed. Cindy understood. She told of how she tried to care even though they were always short of help and she really didn't have time to chat with residents no matter how lonely she seen they were, sometimes the best she could do is a smile and nice words as she took care of their needs before running to take care of an other's needs. With usually twenty patients per aid, she strives to do her best.As we talked further we discussed how it isn't so much quantity of time spent as quality. If you care people will see it. yes stress may cause less than sweet greetings but in the end people will appreciate that extra mile that you went.
In life we should all take this lesson ,don't we all get frustrated waiting in line at the market ? Do we automatically blame the cashier ? Does she ever get her head bit off? of course she does . Maybe if we all looked more at how she smiles and asks how we are instead of jumping her for our wait ( which she can't help anyway ) Maybe we could see past our annoyance and smile back,possibly even asking how she is !If only we all cared, though it would not reduce life's annoyances, life would be so much happier.