Just got off my shift at the recovery room tonight and read your post. Gotta hand it to ya: you're the real deal. You're absolutely right: nursing is not like any other work. And, as we get older, whilst experience works for us, acuity skills diminish and you sometimes can't help but wonder "why the heck do I still do this??" What if I miss something, something crucial?

I know what you're feeling. I've been a nurse since 1980... mostly cath lab, but also some theatre nursing and now post-op recovery. Walking in from taking a patient back to the ward, I found the nurse unit manager for operating theatres writing down observations on a patient just out from having a discectomy whilst a junior, not-yet-fully trained anaesthetics nurse was performing jaw support on this obtunded patient. I observed the patient's chest wall motion seemed a bit exaggerated, and instinctively listened for breathing sounds: there were none discernible. I immediately went to the head of the bed, and without interfering with the nurse's efforts grasped the jaw and thrust it forward just enough to restore a patent airway. The patient gave an loud gasp and began to noisily breathe.

Okay, that was instinct. How long will that work for me? Makes me a bit nervous.

What I'm saying with all this rot is: I understand how you feel... it's a bit scary... even whilst you're in it! And for you non-nurses out there: we do love you - that's why we do it.

Well, that's why I do it, anyway....

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks