When the Lord made Nurses, He was into his sixth day of overtime
 when an angel appeared and said,
"You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order?
A nurse has to be able to help an injured person,
 breathe life into a dying person, and give comfort to a family
 that has lost their only child and not wrinkle their uniform."

"They have to be able to lift 3 times their own weight,
 work 12 to 16 hours straight without missing a detail,
 console a grieving mother as they are doing CPR on a baby
 they know will never breath again."

"They have to be in top mental condition at all times, 
running on too-little sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals.

And they have to have six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."

"It's not the hands
that are causing me problems," said the Lord, 
"It's the two pairs of eyes a nurse has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that does quick glances while making note
 of any physical changes," And another pair of eyes that can look reassuringly 
at a bleeding patient and say, "You'll be all right ma'am" 
when they knows it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, 
"rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk to a 250
 pound grieving family member whose child has been hit by a drunk driver...
who, by the way, is laying in the next room uninjured, 
and feed a family of five on a nurse's paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the nurse very slowly, 
"Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses; 
recite drug calculations in it's sleep; incubate, defibrillate, medicate,
 and continue CPR nonstop until help arrives...
and still it keeps it's sense of humor.

This nurse also has phenomenal personal control. 
they can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person
 to unlock their door, comfort a murder victim's family, 
and then read in the daily paper how nurses are insensitive
 and uncaring and are only doing a job."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the nurse.
 "There's a leak," she pronounced. 
"I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save, 
for commitment to that hope that they will make a difference
 in a person's chance to survive, for life."

"You're a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber.
"I didn't put it there," He said