What was your defining moment as a nurse?

As nurses, we’re put in potentially life changing situations nearly every day. Most often someone in your care’s life is changed, but other times your own life is significantly altered through the course of your day. The greatest challenge and reward of being a nurse is that these two things often overlap.

While big moments can come every day, what are the biggest moments, those you’ll never forget that leave your life forever different – both personally and professionally? Over on allnurses.com, a nurse has written an extremely moving article titled simply, “My defining moment as a nurse…”

It’s rare that we can pinpoint the exact moment when big changes in our lives occur, but the nurse practitioner telling her story can: It was 4:47 p.m. on a Wednesday. And it didn’t occur in a hospital.

Instead, the moment came when the nurse was out on maternity leave and received a call from her pediatrician informing her that her new baby daughter may have a potentially fatal disease.

“[D]espite over a decade of critical care experience, I was for the first time paralyzed with fear,” the author writes.

Though the events happened outside her workplace, the lingering effects would go on to inform her professional career when she returned to her job.

“No longer do I complain when it’s busy, complain when I am burdened, or have to stay late, or write an extra note, or bail out someone else’s patient who needs ICU care,” she writes. “As a nurse practitioner, I save lives. I used to take it for granted. Now, it defines and fulfills me.”

What is your most defining moment as a nurse? How did it change you? Share your stories of inspiration in the comment section below.