Charter for the palliative care unit

THANK YOU, to all of you, PEOPLE. Yes, PERSONS, in capital letters. No nurses, no doctors, no psychologists, no assistants. Humanity in its pure state.

Thank you for making me feel more like a nurse than ever.

For making me lose my fear of such a delicate unit. And not only that, but for making me feel passionate about it and about what it does. For seeing death as another stage in life. To see that stage free of suffering and full of tranquillity and relief for patients and families.

For teaching me, with patience, to acquire such a special attitude that in few places is it possible to see.

For giving strength to the word EMPATHY.

For making real the meaning of the words palliate, mitigate, relieve, accompany and care.
Because you have taken care of me like nobody else. And how could you not? If this is what you do daily in your work with the people who occupy the rooms of this unit. And I don't say patients, because you don't just calm and relieve them. You are also a support to their families. Their shoulder to cry on, the hug to relieve them of everything they are going through.

I have great admiration for you, for your work, for the peace you manage to transmit just by being close to you.

I have been a nurse for six years, and in these two months, every day that I came home after a day in this unit, I could say that I felt more like a nurse than ever. Even without having channelled a line, or placed a bladder catheter. What I was doing was caring for them, palliative care, support, and making them feel that they were not alone. And that, apart from being a nurse, made me feel more human.

Thank you, once again, because I take more than knowledge with me; I take an ATTITUDE with me. And I know that this is something that will always be with me, in any unit, in front of any patient.