What It Means to Be a Nurse

It’s not ‘a job. It is a vocation, a calling’

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Martha Metz

Nursing is more than a job. It is a vocation, a calling.

Many nurses strongly associate their personal identity with their vocation and felt a long-term desire to enter the field before doing so.

For registered nurse Martha Metz, nursing means caring for people.

“It sounds generic, but that interaction with multiple patients throughout various stages of their life is so important,” she said.

Metz, who has nursed for nearly 15 years, is a clinical nurse specialist in critical care at Erie County Medical Center and the president of the Professional Nurses Association WNY.

As she completed her clinical training, she knew for certain that nursing was where she was meant to be. The hands-on care in a nursing home taught her that caring for patients is more than meeting their physical needs.

“The interaction was special as they were so happy there was someone to talk with them or hold their hand,” Metz said. “In acute care, that has followed me all the way. When I’m having a tough day, I put an ‘Out of Office’ on the door and spend time with patients. I clean them up, change their bedding, and help staff with patient care and it can center me. Then I can deal with whatever had been causing me stress. Being with people centers my heart.”

She earned her master’s degree from University at Buffalo in 2016. Metz feels that completing each level of her degree has helped improve her clinical skills and professionalism. For example, all the “basic” nursing protocols have been established for reasons that are important to the patient’s outcome. Even something as simple as the hourly round to check on patients is an important interaction to ensure the patient is doing well.

Although she enjoys caring for patients at the bedside, Metz said that it can be difficult and draining at times.

“There has to be a balance,” she said.

She tries to take time to recharge and destress to take good care of herself and provide better care to her patients. Metz also focuses on caring for the whole person, not just the diagnosis.

“I like helping others feel good,” she said. “Some of the most rewarding visits have been when someone doesn’t know how close they came from not leaving the hospital and they get to leave. I say, ‘I hope I run into you again, just not here.’”

She likes that she can help patients and their families through a difficult time. That is what nursing means to her.

A focus on patient needs is essential to Diane Morrison, who serves as president of the Genesee Valley Nurses Association. She began her healthcare career as a 14-year-old volunteer at Memorial Hospital in Niagara Falls.

“We had cute little blue and white uniforms,” she said. “We delivered mail and flowers. We’d speak with people.”

From those early, enjoyable experiences interacting with patients, Morrison realized that nursing was the career for her. She eventually earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland in the early 1990s and worked in Maryland in a medical and surgical unit and in the intensive care unit. Eventually, she started working in hospice care.

“It was a privilege to travel with their loved one at their end-of-life journey,” Morrison said. “It’s the most important part of their life journey.”

After earning her M.S. in nursing education, she taught for five years at Keuka College and earned her nurse practitioner degree at Keuka College in 2017 and began working at MM Ewing Continuing Care in Canandaigua three years ago.

“The wonderful thing about being here is we have our long-term care population you get close to,” Morrison said. “This is their home. We can be here to help those who pass away under hospice or palliative care. My patients become part of my heart.”

She encourages self-care to prevent burnout, including seeing a mental healthcare provider as needed.

“I approach things in life with humor,” she said. “You have to have humor in the healthcare field.”