"Pierre-Louis Monfort is a lonely man in a crowded room." Or Is He the Epitome of What Nurses Everywhere Long To Be?

Many wonderful and miraculous happenings

Often come from the worst of occurrences

As well as the grief and the anger and despair

Alongside natural disasters that shape our world

The most recent natural disaster everyone is aware

Has come to our friends and families of heart and minds in Haiti

Amongst all the turmoil one man has stood fast, stayed strong

Continuing to practice his art of nursing, though he is alone.

More than likely frightened, definitely tired beyond words

A family of his own,

Living on the streets, begging him to stay with them

But every day at six in the morning to eight in the evening

Pierre-Louis Monfort, Staff Nurse, is at the only TB Sanatorium

In Port Au Prince

He is “making do” with and “rationing” and “re-using”

Anything and everything he needs to keep his patients as healthy as possible

He is, in this nurse’s eye, The Nurse OF The Year

And as one nurse to another Mr. Monfort, may you continue to raise the bar

To keep on though you are alone

When even the most despaired of your patients asks you to leave them alone

This nurse gives her heartfelt thanks to you, sir,

For showing by example

For caring when no one else shows any care

For protecting your family as well as your patents

For being true to your Nursing ethics and code

Of first, To Do No Harm.

This author fully intended to continue to write and describe not only the conditions in post earthquake torn Haiti but also this nurse’s pride and humbled heart in one man’s nursing to bring healthcare to patients in the tuberculosis sanatorium where he works. He laughingly said he is now a floor nurse promoted overnight to administrator but makes no mention of the fear that must be ongoing in his heart and in his mind daily as he makes his rounds, tries to keep up with the documentation, give out medication to any of the patients who fled at the first sign of trouble as well as those too ill to move from their cots...not to mention that his sanatorium is being plundered for its bricks and mortar as the citizens of Haiti attempt to rebuild their lives. Lives they are rebuilding without any thought of the lives of suffering going on inside the halls Mr. Montfort’s sanatorium.

However, there is not anything else to say. All any of us can say is:

Thank You, Pierre-Louis Monfort, Staff Nurse. May god continue to shine his grace upon you for he has surely done so for you, your family and your patients!

I hope nurses everywhere attempt to reach an ninth of a degree of your nursing compassion, courage and ability.

Congratulations from one nurse to another, Mr. Monfort.

As far as this lowly nurse is concerned, you are the Epitome of What It Means to BE a NURSE!