Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Jesse Sharpe | Guest speaker for the Blessing of the Hands ceremony at Walter Reed kicking off...... read more read more
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By Bernard S. Little
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Walter Reed kicked off National Nurses Week with its traditional Blessing of the Hands ceremony May 6 at the medical center.
National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Nightingale is considered the founder of modern nursing for her advocacy of better sanitation and the use of statistical data to improve the delivery of care. She is also credited with significantly reducing death rates by improving hygiene and living standards while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organized care for wounded soldiers.
Army 2nd Lt. Keylin Perez, a nurse at Walter Reed, explained that National Nurses Week honors nurses for their “tireless commitment to patients every day of the year.”
Army Chaplain (Maj.) Robert Fry, agreed, calling the Blessing of the Hands a ceremony of “appreciation and consecration. We are thankful for nurses, who have responded to the highest calling for caregiving. No matter their faith or tradition, they have chosen a profession of providing competent medical care for hurting people, who may not always be grateful, who may not always understand, and who all carry vulnerabilities that can at times test the levels of compassion and patience.”
“This ceremony honors the healing hands of our nursing team members,” shared Army Col. Wendy Woodall, director for nursing services at Walter Reed. She added the ceremony allows the nursing team an opportunity to reflect on “compassion, dedication and the skills that define our noble profession.”
Guest speaker for the ceremony, Army Col. Jodelle M. Schroeder, deputy corps chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC), called Walter Reed a formative place in her career. She served as service chief of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Enhanced Precautions Bio-Containment Unit at Walter Reed earlier in her career.
“Thank you [Walter Reed] for the work you do every single day,” Schroeder said. “The work that’s done in these hallowed halls and that emanates from here, is certainly difficult to grasp unless you’ve been here, done it and lived it. You’ve seen the products and contributions of the folks who’ve come out of here, both patients and staff,” she added.
“No matter your faith, thoughts or traditions, the recognition of healing hands is universal,” Schroeder continued in discussing the purpose for the Blessing of the Hands ceremony. She added that she has a passion for history, and the Blessing of the Hands can be traced back to the year 2000, when members of the American Holistic Nurses Association began the tradition with a small gathering at the University of Virginia Medical Center. “Now, nurses across the United States follow suit,” blessing the hands of their caregivers with the words, “May your hands bring comfort and healing to those they touch,” or “Blessed be these hands that have touched life. Blessed be these hands that have felt pain. Blessed be these hands that have embraced with compassion.”
Schroeder added the Blessing of the Hands also recognizes the holistic nature of health care. She explained healing not only encompasses the physical and pharmaceuticals, but healing also includes the compassion in care. “It’s not just for [our patients’] injuries or bodies, but a holistic effort for the whole human, and it’s ‘Compassion in Action,’ Walter Reed’s theme this year for Nurses Week.”
She also encouraged nurses to remember at least one of their patients who had lasting impressions upon them and share the story of the care of that patient with someone this week. “Share with someone that patient who really left an impression on you – one of the first ones who made you feel that you knew you were in the right place.”
“We stand on the shoulders of giants,” Schroeder added, and she also encouraged nurses to think about those who came before them this week. She mentioned two -- Harriet Tubman and Dorothea Dix.
She explained that Tubman isn’t often thought of when it comes to nursing, but Tubman was appointed as the matron of the hospital at Fort Monroe, Virginia, nursing soldiers and African Americans who served in the Civil War. “She found a remedy for dysentery, and she used [various] botanicals to treat a variety of ailments.”
Schroeder also discussed Dorothea Dix, who served as superintendent of Army nurses during the Civil War, and who fought to improve the care of those with mental challenges, lobbying the U.S. Congress, and helping to create the first generation of American mental asylums.
The ceremony also included prayers for Air Force, Army, Navy and civilian nurses provided by Tech. Sgt. Asa Stansbury, Pfc. Brooklyn Schneider, Ensign Karli Bromley and Leopaudine Happis respectively.
All nurses then recited the Florence Nightingale Pledge, which closes with, “With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in [their] work and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.”
Fry closed the ceremony with the following thoughts: “It’s the nurse who helps bring us into this world. It’s the nurse who is with us when we part. It’s the nurse who shows the new mother how to care for her newborn, and the nurse who shows that grown child how to care for the bedridden disabled parent. It’s the nurse who is called on emergencies to save a life, and the nurse who finds any way possible to preserve life. It’s the nurse who joins our armed forces in training, in the military, in the military hospital and on deployments. It’s the nurse who teaches our medics and corpsmen how to save lives, and the nurses who are instrumental in the golden hour of saving the wounded. Whether in clean, well-organized, well-paid and fully-staff hospitals, or in austere, chaotic, average pay and understaffed [facilities], the actions and attitude of our nurses define the difference between real patient care or a patient’s despair.”
| Date Taken: | 05.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.07.2024 17:29 |
| Story ID: | 470587 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
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