Portrait of a Tender (#3) - Sue - Labor and Delivery

38 years ago, Sue started her first nursing job on labor and delivery.  She was a single mom with two babies at home. Sue  had been working as a unit secretary in a hospital  when she realized that she wanted to "be on the other side of the desk, where the action was".  With the help of family, she went back to school for her nursing degree and has been "in the action" on labor and delivery ever since.
Just last week, Sue shifted her career into partial retirement. Closing out a 38 year career in labor in delivery during the COVID 19 pandemic has been bittersweet and far from how she had envisioned her last few years in the hospital.  The work of laboring women is "hands on" and we have all been living through a two year period of "hands off".  PPE, though absolutely necessary, creates barriers to touch and connection that inhibit nurses' ability to give their patients their full support. This hurts both the patient and the nurse. The person in need isn't able to fully receive and the giver cannot fully give.  It's a heartbreaking reality for all involved.
These barriers to connection and tending are evident in many facets of nursing,  but nowhere more than in the physical and emotional work of assisting women in childbirth.  Nurses come to labor and delivery and stay because they LOVE this incredibly demanding yet infinitely rewarding WORK.
It's not the charting or the chatting. It's the deep connection that is created in the labor room doing the most magnificent thing women do. The women coming to give birth are both excited and afraid like never before.  All of the fears and worries that surround childbirth and plague many women are still swirling about, and now there is a lethal pandemic to consider on top of it all.  Some are walking into a hospital as a patient for the very first time, and a long awaited brand new baby is going to be entering this world as well.
The tenders need to tend and the gardens need tending...like never before.
This awe inspiring crew at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital has figured it out.  They are doing it, friends, but they are really tired.  The fatigue is deafening.  
*You can help by donating to the LOVE Wall here at
https://www.mjhfoundation.org/donate-babywall.  and we are currently working on a means of direct donation online.  
ALL OF THE MONEY STAYS HERE AT
CHARLOTTESVILLE'S VERY OWN COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, SMJH , TO HELP NURSES AND FAMILIES.  
*NURSE RESILIENCY PROGRAMS AND EDUCATION
*EDUCATION FOR LOCAL FAMILIES
#LoveConnectTend
#portraitofatender