Jakiara Edwards: The Moment I Became a Nurse
Humans are programmed to thrive from social interaction; it is something that has been wired into us as long as there have been humans. This interaction also aligns with the emotional ability to interact with others using empathy and compassion. As students in nursing school, we are taught the basic dynamics of nurse-patient interaction in terms of skills such as assessment, giving medication properly, and therapeutic communication. However, compassion has to be born from the innate desire to serve the community and the people within it. And true compassion can’t be taught from a textbook. That is a lifestyle that is to be learned by putting oneself out in the wild of the real world and building connections even in simplistic ways. To me, that's what being a nurse truly is. The personal interaction between one person and another for a common goal of feeling better.
This was discovered within me during my 10-week summer externship following a nurse preceptor rotating through both a postpartum and a cardiovascular unit (spending five weeks in each). During my time, there were no cameras, no applause, and no one else noticed it happen - it was just a mutual exchange of trust between a patient and me. Yet in that moment, something shifted. In that one quiet interaction, I understood my calling better than I had ever before. I realized that the mission was bigger than me. Nursing is more than just interventions to fix one's physical ailments; it is the art of being human with another human. That was the moment I became a nurse.
While at the heart hospital on the cardiovascular unit, I would sometimes have shifts where I would act as secretary: picking up calls to the main phone, keeping an eye on our various heart monitors, and helping patients when their assigned nurses were busy. On one of those shifts, an alarm started blaring from the notification monitor at the front desk that lets us know when a patient needs assistance. Through the machine, I asked, “How can I help you?”. The soft voice of an older woman replied, “I’m sorry, I just need to use the restroom.”. I had nothing to do at the time, so I let her know that I would be there shortly. This was a patient I had no experience with. I did not know her name, diagnosis, or how I could help her in my current role as an extern.
I went to her dimly lit room and saw the woman lying on the bed. Head full of gray hair, pale skin, and a skinny figure. She told me she had trouble getting up without someone else in the room because she has a history of falling. I reassured her that it would be no problem to take her to the restroom. After asking if it was okay to touch her, I helped move the woman to the bedside commode and provided privacy by allowing her to do her business. After she was finished, she asked if she could use me for one more favor. She wanted to get out of bed and move to the couch. I helped her up once more and, using myself as a human walker, we walked together from the side of her bed to the chair. I took my time with her as I could see she was frail and afraid to fall. I wanted her to know that she did not have to rush with me. After getting her settled in the chair, she told me about how comforting it was to finally be out of bed, and she had been stuck in bed for a while as the patient care technician got busy taking care of their other patients.
Throughout all that moving and readjusting, she and I began to talk. She told me about her family, especially her husband, who had passed away a few years prior. We went back and forth talking about life experiences, love, and our families until the conversation shifted to one about God. In that shift, she told me something that has stuck with me since then. She expressed that “God has put people on this earth with talents and gifts,” to which I interpreted a gift as something one is born with, while a talent is a skill grown and developed over time. And she continued, “...some people are talented at being a nurse, but you have a gift.”. At that moment, I was shocked. I didn't know what to say other than thank you. I didn’t know that I could have such an effect on others by providing patience and kindness so that they felt like they could break down the walls that sickness causes one to build. It was emotional to me that she would apologize for every request, but it was my pleasure to serve.
This service grounded me in terms of how I provide nursing care. It completely changed the way I enter a patient’s space. Before, I would enter the patient's room with a mental list of things to complete: head-to-toe assessment, give medication, and ask if they needed anything. But through this encounter, I was able to apply what I have learned as a student to real-life situations, specifically applying knowledge from the classroom to passion at the bedside. As well as understanding the importance of holistic patient-centered care. I have learned to look beyond the systematic operation of health care and lean more into the true focus of medicine, the person.
When overseeing an individual, even simple tasks can carry emotional weight because patients are in a vulnerable state where they feel stripped of their dignity and independence. Providing patience and kindness restores faith in humanity and in healthcare. Overall, I wanted to give to others what I believed a nurse to be: a staple of compassion. As I continue my journey, there will be many more patients like her, each with varying diagnoses and the need for individualized care. To put it simply, nursing is about the interventions we perform for the best outcomes for the patient. However, taking care of someone encompasses all aspects of health, including physical, emotional, mental, social, etc, which is the model for holistic care. A patient is more than just a number on a chart; a patient is a person, and sometimes, what a patient needs to feel better, instead of a pill, is another person.
Jakiara Edwards in her first Nursing Headshot
Jakiara Edwards is from Columbia, SC. She will graduate in May 2026 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She participated in a nursing externship over the summer with Prisma Health Midlands, where she followed and worked alongside nursing preceptors in their patient care rotation. After graduation, she plans to pursue a job at Prisma Health in a nursing field of her choosing.