Social Work

I am a nephrology social worker, for those who are like "What is that?"  I work with people on dialysis.  I had two patients pass away suddenly this week so this week has been tough.  I have also worked hospice and people always asked me how I did it.  It is difficult when you lose a patient that you have been working with and there have been times I have broken down sobbing over the loss of a patient.  Today was one of those days.  I lost a patient that I have been working with for over 2 years now.  What keeps me going is knowing that I made a difference in that person's life.  When I first got into social work I wanted to work with children then in graduate school I got placed with a hematology/oncology clinic in Baton Rouge.  I was so mad when I found out about my placement because I thought it was going to be horrible and depressing.  I absolutely loved it.   I am drawn to the medical field, I don't know if it is because I basically grew up in hospitals because my dad was sick or what.  Needless to say I have life experience dealing with people who are chronically ill.

I think part of being able to work with chronically/terminally ill patients is you have to have a strong sense of spirituality.  It always amuses me when people make comments about my spirituality because I am actually very spiritual.  I am not very religious, I believe it is good to go to church but I don't think it as important as what is in your heart and your actions.  I don't feel the need to prove my spirituality to others.

I believe God has a purpose for me and that purpose is to help people.  I knew I wanted to be a social worker when I was in the 7th grade.  We had a social worker come to our class and explain what she did and I knew that was what I wanted to do.  I feel that I can best serve God through social work.  I have held a patient's hair while she was nauseated and vomiting, I have held a patient's hand as they took their last breath, I have consoled a family who has just lost their loved one and I was there for someone who had no one else that cared.  I have gone to funerals of patients in the ghetto at night and being the only white person there because a patient asked me to and I told him I would.  These are the moments I carry with me and make being a social worker worth while.  There is nothing else I would rather do.  Social workers don't get a lot of recognition, most people assume that all we do is take people's kids away and we definitely don't make a lot of money.  I know at the end of the day I am making a difference and that is all that matters.  I believe at the end of my life God is not going to care how much money I made or what kind of house I lived in or how often I went to church but rather what I did with the life I was given.