Evening Shift, Christmas Eve: A Nursing Memory

By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

One of my fondest memories of working Christmas Eve was after an evening shift at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. This was at the “old Bellevue Hospital,” when it still occupied a series of red brick buildings along the East River.

I had finished my evening shift in the ER, which was one of the busiest in the nation. It had been a crazy–busy night and I was too wired to just go home and sleep, so I decided to stop in the chapel for midnight mass. I was surprised to see my friend Helen there, since she was Jewish. I knew Helen always volunteered to work over the Christmas holiday so those who celebrated could be with their families, but I didn’t know that after work she’d go to the chapel to listen to the Christmas music, which apparently she loved.

We sat together, enjoying the quiet, calm pace of the service and the music. Helen knew all the words and sang along; she had a beautiful voice. Staff, visitors, and some patients (wearing the classic blue-and-white-striped Bellevue bathrobes—like draw sheets, these were hard to come by) shuffled in and out during the hour, clinicians sometimes leaving hurriedly after being summoned by a beeper.

Illustration for "A Change of Heart," AJN, December, 2014, by Lisa Dietrich for AJN. Illustration for “A Change of Heart,” AJN, December, 2014, by Lisa Dietrich

On the way out […]