This tweet inspired me on the fifth day of the 101 Writing course. Socrates says something like this originally. He lived 469-399 B.C.

All I know is that I know nothing!

The person who tweets this puts the word education into Socrates’ sentence.

I remember a time when I knew that I was going to take an extra education on top of my nursing training. I wanted to become a Health Visitor. In Denmark that is a protected title and you have to be a staff nurse first and then spend two years on different wards that serve to build up for further education on children and health.

Waiting for getting into the new schooling I worked as a district nurse in Copenhagen. Most of the visits had to do with elderly people who needed all kind of help. One day I was visiting a mother with a new-born child. At that time in the late seventies the nurses were obliged to visit to see if the mother was alright if she had gone home from the hospital very quickly or had a birth at home. The Health visitor came to recommend about the baby a few days after.

A photo from that time I mention. It was placed in my first driving license

I longed to go into my calling as I felt it, but I remember my lack of knowledge and what to say about the child. The mother was so much at the top that she was preparing a birthday party for one of the other children in the family. There wasn’t time for me and I left of course as every thing was fine. I didn’t have the authorization to have an opinion on the baby or his needs unless he had been in danger and I should have acted as a nurse.

During the new education I learnt a lot and it was very demanding and inspiring. The Tweeter is right you know nothing or not a lot when graduated, but I think it gives you a foundation to stand on and to build on. After many years in the job I now volunteer when I am needed for new mothers and their babies. I stand on my ground and I compose something out of what is at hand in the situation. I listen and I try to understand and back up the mother with security and simplicity, advising to cut away all unnecessary actions to secure the basic needs of both mother and baby. I leave them hopefully in a good mood after one and a half hour at the most.

My old-fashioned way of weighing a baby

I remember the feeling of being completely superfluous that day wanting so much to become what I still was not.