"When I was a student in the emergency room, a young child was brought in who was hit by a falling branch at daycare. He looked perfect and uninjured, but the CT scan revealed a crushed skull with very little hope of any kind of recovery. He was laying on the gurney looking like a perfect angel sleeping, and the mother was not hearing the doctor's dire prognosis. She was screaming and crying and sobbing, and it was as agonizing to hear as I'm sure it was for her to feel. I was a student nurse and could have slipped away from that pain, but for some reason I stayed, despite my strong desire to go anywhere else. The team started working on the child, leaving the parent frightened and wailing in the corner. I stepped up next to her and just touched her arm. She clung to me and on that day, I realized the true essence of nursing."
