“My mother often complains that I care more about others than my own family. That’s because whenever she calls, most of the time, I would be on duty serving the patients in the hospital. But how do I make her understand that all these efforts are only for the people and the service itself makes me happy?

I come from a small agricultural family in Nagarkurnool district. The health issues faced by the people in my village drove me towards entering the medical field. However, the financial crisis at home did not allow me to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. Instead, I opted for Bachelors of Nursing and have been working as a Nursing Officer for the past 10 years.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, I was assigned duty in the Emergency Operation Theatre where we directly deal with the positive and suspected patients of the Novel Coronavirus. At first, my family wasn’t comfortable with me doing my job in a pandemic. But being in the healthcare field, especially during a crisis like COVID-19, I knew I will have to give my one hundred percent, so I kept everything aside and continued to serve people. Those eight-hour shifts in the operation theatre (no bathroom breaks or meals allowed during the surgery period) are more difficult than our regular six-hour shifts in the medical ward. Being a scrub nurse, I mostly deal with emergency and accident cases. I remember treating an elderly man suffering from a fractured neck of femur last year. The patient had tested positive for COVID-19 and it was a major operation. At that time, I was in the operation theatre for almost two and a half hours and took care of him like my own father. The operation was successful and he was discharged later.

In my 10 years of service as aperioperative nurse, I have been a part of close to 2,500 operations, but that was one of the most memorable ones as I had treated a COVID positive patient for the first time. Every day is a new challenge being a healthcare professional and each practical experience in the COVID-19 ward has only taught me how blessed I am to be able to live in this world. On the occasion of International Nurses Day, I want to request everyone to be caring and empathetic towards others and practice COVID appropriate behavior. We shall all fight this second wave together and emerge stronger than ever!”#InternationalNursingDay #covid19 #frontlineworkers #nurse #nursesday #Frontliners #Inspire #Strength #pandemic #Family #Hyderabad #HumansofHyderabad