I arrived in the parking lot adjacent to the emergency room at the hospital at 6:20 this morning.  I had been asked by hospital administrators to share a word of encouragement with patients and staff alike at shift change this morning.  As I made my way to the ER entrance through the misty fog, I noticed one of my ER nurses heading toward her car.  Her shift had just ended.   She looked exhausted. I could tell it had been a long night.  We spoke briefly.  I listened carefully, as she briefly recounted life in the ER during such a time as this.

I immediately felt protective of each of my nurses.  They are competent and caring.  They work harder than most realize.  And unfortunately, the people they serve are not always gracious.

As I walked in the hospital this morning, I wondered to myself when the nurses in the ER became “my nurses.”  When I became a law enforcement chaplain in 1990, I had no clue that a significant amount of my ministry would occur in the ER.  I have served countless families in the aftermath of unexpected and sometimes violent deaths in emergency room waiting areas over the past 3 decades.

Some of the nurses I have served with are every bit as tough as the cops working patrol. There were times that I was a little taken aback at things said by petite women wearing scrubs!  I soon learned ER nurses are a unique breed. They adapt quickly. They wrote the book on multi-tasking. And, they have always been outstanding partners when it is time to deliver bad news to a family…

At some point “the nurses” in the ER became “my nurses.” I can’t pinpoint a date. There was not a dramatic moment.   I must have left the ER one day sometime back in the 1990’s after a call out and referred to these special servants in a prayer as “my nurses.”  How could I not pray for my nurses today?  Won’t join me?