Health team

My physician-dad was a strong advocate for nurses. I recall how much he admired the profession and knew their true value in caring for others.

If he could see how America’s nurses (and doctors) gave it their all in treating COVID-19 patients over the past year+, he would be very proud.

Dad frequently referred to nurses as the true backbone of the American healthcare system. “Hospitals all over the country would fall to pieces without good nurses,” dad told me. “They run things.”

In observing my father’s medical career, I know that the physician-nurse work relationship can be bumpy. And why not? Life-and-death decisions bring with them enormous pressure and responsibility. Both practitioners can be right. Both can be wrong. The best ones in both camps know the patient’s well-being always comes first. Considering the stakes — a human being’s time on Earth — the fact that doctors and nurses have worked so well together and for so long always surprises me.

“Caring is the essence of nursing.”
—Jean Watson

Nurses I’ve known through the years tell me that dad was one of the “good guys” among the physician staff at our local hospital. My own recollection of dad’s interactions with nurses was that while he wasn’t always “Prince Charming,” he did back them up on patient-care matters and would genuinely encourage their input on patient treatment.

I’d say that my father was both respected and liked by the nurses. A rare daily double. I’ve also learned that being both isn’t an easy thing for a hectic doctor. And dad had his hectic moments with nurses, too.

Alice Kelly, RN

One nurse told me that towards the end of a particularly demanding and stressful weekend of illnesses, the nurses on shift took to flipping a coin to see who would call dad with another care concern. Another story had a nurse calling my father’s home at some very late hour and asking: “Is this Dr. Kelly?” And the retort by my drained dad was “Well, it’s not Spartacus!”

Still, nurses told me and my family that dad was approachable and would never publicly rebuke a nurse colleague. Perhaps the finest testament for dad’s regard for the profession comes from the fact that one of his children chose to be a nurse. My sister and Monmouth Beach native, Alice Ward Kelly, was a wonderful nurse, he thought. A busy nurse for only about a year, Alice died too young in a December 1974 auto accident. MORE HERE.

God Bless America’s nurses!