from these genuine nursing tasks convincing myself that I need to do something else, or by specifically searching out something else to do, for example, tidying up the first aid kit – one more time, or writing out medical histories for the benefit of doctors? Perhaps I go to watch interesting procedures at the cost of neglecting the sick? In community nursing – maybe I convince myself that I do not have the time to make another home visit, but still manage to create for myself the task of unnecessarily tidying up nursing reports? 4. Do I treat the sick simply as numbers, as sickness “cases” forgetting about the unique personality of each one of them? Do I remember that the hundredth surgery for me, is the first one for the patient? That every newborn baby – from among many – which I am carrying out [of the nursery] to his or her mother, is her greatest love? 5. Do I nurse with increased gentleness unconscious patients, children and the elderly? Do I encompass with special care the distressed and anxious? 6. What is my attitude towards the dying? When there is no one present from their family with them do I do everything I can to substitute for them? Were there occasions when I sat idly in the nurses’ station, leaving dying patients to themselves? 7. How do I approach the religious concerns of the sick? Do I care for them? Was I maybe too insistent, following some set ideology? Did I do everything in my power to enable a seriously ill patient to receive the Holy Sacraments (e.g. Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Viaticum and an Apostolic Pardon)? Am I concerned about baptism for Christian infants threatened with death? What is my collaboration with the hospital chaplain like? Do I facilitate the chaplain’s work by providing, whenever possible, peace in the patients’ room, providing explanations, and sharing insights? 106
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