Hawzah News Agency- On the occasion of National Nurses Day in Iran, Hawzah News presents a selection of Imam Khamenei’s remarks on the nursing profession, which he described as valuable, difficult, and vital to public health.
Health Is Life’s Foremost Concern
Health is among the most important issues in any society. The well-known tradition “There are two blessings which people take for granted: health and security” is a true pointer to a fundamental and vital matter. Both health and security are great blessings whose value is not understood until they are lost — like air, like breathing. As long as a person breathes, they do not grasp the importance of this free and ever-present blessing. Only when breathing becomes difficult does one realize what a great blessing has been lost. (April 21, 2010)
The Nurse’s Role in Public Health
The medical and nursing community, along with the rest of the health care system, are the providers of this great blessing for society — and the nurse’s role in this is a very prominent one. (April 21, 2010)
Nurses Are Highly Influential in the Health System
Nurses are a highly influential and important group. The role of the nurse, as well as the midwife, in the country’s health system is a very important and enormous one. If a compassionate and kind nurse is not at the patient’s side, it is very likely that the physician’s treatment will have no effect on that patient.
That angelic being who guides the patient through the long and difficult path of illness and its severity is the nurse. Every one of us who has fallen ill and undergone severe illness or difficult surgeries — including myself — has felt and continues to feel this firsthand. The nurse’s role is a reviving, life-giving one. (April 29, 2009)
The Nurse: An Angel of Mercy
Nurses are the companions of all patients and the disabled in their pain, the confidants of moments of suffering for those who need a companion and a caretaker. (June 15, 2005) Dear nurses are truly angels of mercy for all the sick and those caring for the sick in society. (June 23, 2004)
A nurse is an angel of mercy for the patient. When the patient has no one else to turn to, in those hours when even their spouse, children, and parents are not at their bedside, their hope after God rests on the nurse — and it is the nurse who, like heavenly angels, like angels of mercy, responds to their pains, problems, and physical and emotional needs. This is very important, and this is not forgotten before God Almighty. Of course, perhaps no eye sees your efforts. Many of the hardships you endure and the sufferings you bear go unseen. Sometimes a single smile from you gives new life to a depressed patient. Who sees that smile? (June 23, 2004)
Nursing: Among the Hardest Professions
A nurse is a kind human being who, through behavior, ethics, and service, gifts health back to the patient. If the physician completes their treatment but nursing care is absent, restoring the patient’s health is difficult. Anyone who has experienced the care of kind nurses understands and knows how effective nurses are in gifting health to patients. This human being who performs angelic work faces great difficulties: various illnesses, the harsh and exhausted temper of a patient confined to bed, problems arising from the patient’s condition, severe and sometimes contagious diseases, the stifling atmosphere of the hospital — all of these place this profession, with all its honor and sanctity, among the hardest of occupations. (July 25, 2001)
Nursing: Among the Most Valuable Professions
If we were to measure the value of various services people offer one another by this standard — that any service directly connected to human beings, any service that is a form of comforting others, any service whose provider endures greater hardship, and any service performed with knowledge, awareness, and education is more valuable — then I believe nursing would be among the most valuable professions and services. Because a nurse directly deals with human beings, comforts a person in need of comfort and help, and — praise God — performs work grounded in knowledge and education. (October 12, 1994)
A nurse is in a constant spiritual and psychological struggle; it is not merely a physical matter. Mental exhaustion, facing the sick and suffering, and the sense of duty to provide both physical and spiritual treatment to the patient — this is an extremely draining matter, a heavy task. Nurses have taken on this heavy responsibility.
Be assured that every moment, every second, every minute you spend in this work — with a sense of duty toward the patient, toward the suffering human being — you receive a good deed from God Almighty and a reward from the Lord.
Not a single second is lost in divine reckoning. One should not imagine that difficult moments for a nurse at a patient’s bedside will be overlooked in divine reckoning — that is not the case. Every moment you spend, every effort you make, every restraint you show in the face of hardships is a good deed, a deed worthy of reward, and God Almighty records all of these moments. These difficult works, which have great and important effects, must be appreciated.
A Tradition
There is a narration that one who visits a sick person is like one who is immersed in divine mercy. Some may wonder what is so special about visiting the sick. You yourselves, who know the patient’s needs and the impact of your work, understand why such a great reward has been designated for the caregiver and nurse — because its impact is beyond calculation and surpasses ordinary measures.
Sometimes giving a patient morale is far more life-giving and effective than giving them medicine — and you are the ones who provide that morale. In supplications we read: “O God, I ask You for the causes of Your mercy.” Divine mercy is not given to anyone without cause or reason; one must beseech God to provide the causes of mercy — meaning, we must do that which brings about mercy so that God then sends His mercy. This work is among the greatest causes of mercy, which is very precious and very valuable. (June 23, 2004)
Nurses: Be Thorough and Complete
To nurses and also to respected midwives, I say: appreciate the value of this service, this great blessing. Just as people must look upon them with respect, they themselves must look upon their profession with respect — for this self-honoring, this self-appreciation, plays an enormous role in the quality of work across all groups.
Our first advice to all is to value the work entrusted to them, with enthusiasm and love, to honor it, to give it importance, and to do it properly. We have repeatedly quoted the words of the great Prophet (PBUH): “May God have mercy on one who undertakes a task and performs it thoroughly and well.” This applies to me, to you, to every worker, teacher, nurse, and all other professions and responsibilities. Whatever task we undertake, we must perform it thoroughly and completely. (April 29, 2009)
I say to our dear nurses — both male and female: you who have found this success, who have taken on this great work, and who perform this valuable service — honor it. Do not let it be tarnished, God forbid, by any shortcoming, negligence, or inappropriate conduct. The more you provide this service, and the more correctly, the better the affairs of people’s lives will be — and the greater your reward will be. (October 12, 1994)
The Need for a Nursing Code of Ethics
Of course, the duties are also heavy. Attention must be paid to duties as well. Nursing ethics, like medical ethics, is an obligation, a duty. Your reward is very great, and your duty is also very heavy — because a human patient is not a machine, not a collection of iron and steel and nuts and bolts, not merely a body.
The human soul, human feelings, human emotions — especially when one is sick and suffering — are in great need of kindness, in need of tenderness. Sometimes a single smile from you is worth more, and more effective, than all the medicine and treatment given to the patient. A patient is in turmoil, in distress — especially severely ill patients. Helping them is not merely helping their body. The body must be treated with medicine, treatment, injections, and medical measures — but the soul is healed with love, with kindness, with tenderness, with compassion. Sometimes this spiritual healing even takes the place of physical treatment. This is both scientifically established and proven by experience: that joy of the soul, nervous and emotional joy, has a positive effect on the body. This is in your hands, in the hands of nurses.
Truly, a nursing code of ethics must be prepared, a nursing covenant and charter must be taught and instructed. A nurse must know the greatness of their work — which naturally is inseparable from the importance of their own personality — and must perform the work as it deserves. (April 21, 2010)
Officials and the Public
Those who plan and make decisions in various fields must look upon this profession with this perspective and make decisions accordingly. The public, too, who look upon society’s servants at all levels with respect, must look upon this profession and its hardworking practitioners with this same eye. Respect for nurses is necessary. A nurse must feel that the people, society, and officials value their profession, responsibility, and efforts. This makes hardships easier for them. (July 25, 2001)
Society’s Culture Must Recognize the Importance of Nursing
The general understanding of our society and the public culture must properly grasp that for maintaining health in society, the importance of nursing is of the first order. That is, if the best physicians and surgeons perform their work in the best possible way but the patient is not nursed, then in most cases the work of that physician or surgeon will be futile. The role of nursing and patient care in maintaining health and restoring a patient’s health is a first-order role — equal to the role of a skilled physician. Many are heedless of this point, and therefore the weight and value that should be considered for nurses remains absent from their minds, and they pay no attention to it. (June 23, 2004)
In my view, all our people and all those who care about the fate of patients and the health of the country must show attention, affection, and importance to nurses — both officials and the general public. Society’s culture must recognize the importance and difficulty of the nurse’s work. (June 23, 2004)
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