The night that senior nurse almost made me throw away my calling

Back in 2007 when I was still a junior nurse at University College Hospital Ibadan, I worked a night shift that changed something in me. A patient came in bleeding badly after a road accident. The doctor on call was delayed. I did what I was trained to do, stabilised him, stopped the bleeding myself. By morning the man was stable.

Then my senior nurse, Matron Folasade Adeyemi, walked into the ward and told the doctor she handled the emergency. She even wrote the report in her name. I stood there holding the bloodied gauze, too shocked to speak. Nobody asked me anything.

I cried in the changing room after my shift. I told my mother on the phone that I was done with nursing. She just said, 'Bose, if you let one wicked person steal your joy, you will spend your life running.'

The next week, that patient's wife found me in the corridor. She held my hand and said, 'My husband told me it was you. God bless you.' She didn't even know my name. She just knew.

I stayed. Twenty years later, I still remember that woman's face. God is faithful.