I n 1998, I worked evenings as a nursing supervisor at St. Francis Hospital Medical Center in Harford, CT, a Level I Trauma Center. Among other things, we booked beds for all patients needing critical care or step down. I loved that job and was usually assigned to cover the emergency department because of my background. I would frequently go down to check on them, and I would always respond to the trauma activations and help out as scribe. We planned a big celebration for Nurses Week and put together a great video of nurses in action shots from each of their units. We made a continuous loop of it on the Hospital TV Channel and played it so it was visible to everyone entering the hospital. In addition, we published a booklet to celebrate nursing with exemplars written by the nurses. As I helped to solicit nurses to write the exemplars, I listened to stories of how one after another had been touched by a patient. I had not thought of that booklet for years until just this week when I came across it while “rearranging” my desk. As I leafed through it, I found an exemplar I had written. It is unedited from 1998. “I am not in the position where I deliver direct patient care anymore, and I miss interactions with patients that give back so much more than they take. I guess it is called the satisfaction one gets from doing something for someone. I asked myself how I get satisfaction from nursing today. I didn’t have far to look. Just this past weekend something special happened and it reminded me. “It was an unusually busy weekend in the emergency department. Traumas were coming in two at a time. The “back” of the emergency department was full with stretchers in all the hallways. I walked out to check triage and saw the triage nurse in her “box.” The phone was ringing, two patients were standing at her left to be registered and, beyond that, a waiting room full of people. One patient was in the room behind her getting vital signs checked by the tech, and to reach her from her right I had to weave through two ambulance stretchers each with two attendants and a waiting patient, as well as two patients on stretcher chairs accompanied by two to three family members. I walked up to say hello and as she turned and saw me, tears, however slight, welled up in her eyes and she said, “I can’t do this anymore.” I said to her, “Go take a break. I’ll relieve you.” She explained that she’d been there all day without a break or lunch and just wanted a cup of coffee. “I’ll be right back,” she said. True enough, she was back in 5 minutes and entered back “into the fray.” I stayed and helped for a while until I had to leave and give report to the next shift. “The next day was no better. I work 12-hour shifts on the weekend, and when it is this busy, it really takes a toll. Problems to solve had started at 7:35 a.m. before I got out of report, and it had continued to be a challenging day. I found myself that afternoon in the emergency department booking more and more patients and feeling overwhelmed when all of a sudden, the nurse who had been at triage the day before (she was working today in the main emergency department), walked by the desk, leaned over and said to me, “Thanks for yesterday.” Just as suddenly, she was off to answer an alarm, phone or patient’s call, but the moment had been changed for me. I got that warm positive energy that only one human heart can get from another human heart and I felt good. It helped pick me up just when I needed it. “I guess the point I want to make is that nurses get satisfaction from helping nurses, as well as patients. In this stressful health care environment today we can remember that and pass some positive energy to another human heart, because another day, when we need it, it might just come back to us and lift our spirit.” Diane Gurney is President of the Emergency Nurses Association.