You might say that nursing runs in my family. My mother was a nurse.

She worked in the operating at Fletcher Allen. My sister Martha is an LPN at St. Joseph’s, a home for older men and women in Burlington. My cousin Jill is the Director of Nursing Services at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor, and my cousin Gail, then a labor and delivery nurse at Fletcher Allen, delivered all four of our children.

So it almost felt like a family gathering last week, when nurses from all over Vermont asked me to join them on the State House lawn to celebrate National Nurses’ Week, and to honor the vital role nurses play in our lives. They also wanted to raise awareness about Vermont’s need for more nurses and nurse educators, and to publicize their Light the Lamp Campaign for Nursing Scholarships.

Teams of nurses worked together that afternoon assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle illustrating the theme, “In Puzzling Times, Nurses Put the Health Care Pieces Together”. Sponsors “purchase” pieces of the puzzle, and their donations go to the Light the Lamp Scholarship Fund. The Fund will help nurses advance their education for leadership and teaching positions. The good news is that since 2001, applications to Vermont nursing schools have increased over 200 percent. The bad news is that due to a national nursing faculty shortage and limited resources, Vermont’s nursing schools must turn away qualified applicants. This scholarship campaign will help.

The Nurses’ Foundation had also collected personal stories from individual nurses all over the state -- stories that tell of the most meaningful and inspiring experiences of their nursing careers. They all went into a Treasure Chest, which the nurses presented to me. I want to share parts of those stories with you.

One nurse writes, “In no other profession are you allowed (and invited) to be with people at their most vulnerable times. It has been a privilege to care for the thousands of patients. Each has been special and unique ...” Another cites “Words of a brand new mom -- ‘I couldn’t have done that without you!’ -- whose complicated labor was a 56-hours-long event. Knowing my experience and expertise as a nurse, along with a big doses of cheerleading and compassion and teamwork, led to a positive outcome for this woman and her family.”

A nurse educator recalls “Looking into the fully-dilated pupils of a 21-year-old cardiac donor on New Year’s Eve, 1977, and thinking, ‘How much longer will I be able to deal with this?’ -- and here I am, 28 years later, being a resource to faculty who teach nursing students how to care ...”

A school nurse wrote “I gave a talk to 5th and 6th grade classes on mental health, self-image, culture and eating disorders. A week or so later a group of girls asked to eat lunch with me, and expressed concerns about a friend who they thought was anorexic. After a few lunches with this girl, she opened up to admit her problem, and how really miserable she was, and that she wanted help ...”

One nurse told the story of a cancer survivor she had nursed and comforted; “I still hang a Christmas ornament she made for me ... we cried together as we spoke of her cancer.” Another recalled, “I remember being a charge nurse on a general medical ward at Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1975. One of my patients was a retired enlisted man who was Jewish, just like myself. We bonded with each other, as there were not many Jewish naval officers. He was dying of cancer, and I cared for him during his last few months. He let me into his life in ways that were a true gift. I held his hand and was with him in his final moments. His eyes often reminded me of my own father’s eyes -- eyes of warmth, connection and true peace. I was reminded of the true gift of nursing -- that people trust you with their innermost intimacies ... I couldn’t ask for a more rewarding or meaningful profession.”

There has been much discussion in the legislature about health care this year. These stories really remind us that health care isn’t about certificates of need, or parking garages, cost shifts or federal matching funds. It’s about care and love, administered 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, through holidays, weekends and nights, while we’re at home, snug in bed.

Nurses are out on the front lines, getting the job done, in our hospitals and clinics, our homes, our nursing homes, our schools. However we agree to address our state’s health care challenges, we will fail if we don’t remember that these are real people, both patients and care givers alike.

The puzzle, “In Puzzling Times, Nurses Put the Health Care Pieces Together” will now travel to communities all around our state to raise donations for the scholarship fund. An organization or individual can purchase a puzzle piece for a $150 tax-deductible donation, made out to: Vermont State Nurses Foundation, 100 Dorset St. #13, So. Burlington, VT 05403