Real World Nursing
I can vividly remember sitting in class and being lectured by my professors, themselves registered nurses, about "changing the nursing profession" and "having a positive impact" on the job. Our heads were filled with a false belief that we could go out there and change the attitudes and practices of the more seasoned nurses. Then I graduated, passed my licensing exam and hit the "real world".
When I clocked out of my very first shift as a nurse, I felt defeated, angry and disappointed. Defeated because I followed what I was taught in nursing school and was berated because of it. Angry because I felt my professors had lied to me. Disappointed because I became a nurse to have a positive impact on the lives of others and I was told in no uncertain terms that it was "impossible" in the "real world".
As a student nurse I was taught to be the patient advocate, to always be working for the good of the patient. I was taught to question doctors when I felt they made a mistake. As a licensed nurse, I found that "working for the good of the patient" could only be accomplished if there were only 4 patients to one nurse. I also found that to "question doctors when I felt they made a mistake" was a huge mistake! The doctors gave the orders and it was my job to follow them, end of discussion.
I don't think seasoned nurses intend to "eat their young" but still they do. They bring to the table years of knowledge and experience that a new nurse does not have and either consciously or unconsciously they are determined to impart the "truth" as they see it on the new nurse. It took working several years before I sorted out all the fiction from the truth.
When I began to train new nurses, I even felt myself succumbing to the "old school" ways of "cutting them down to size". Why did I do this when it had such an impact on me? I now had experience of working in the "real world".
Nursing is glamorized in so many tragic ways. Don't get me wrong, nursing is an honored and much needed profession and one that I feel honored to be a part of. It is also, however, a profoundly mistreated profession. Patients, administrators nor doctors truly understand the role of the nurse. A nurse is more than a pill pusher, temperature taker or butt wiper. A nurse is also a counselor, a sounding board, an empathetic ear. Nurses must manage a patient load of anywhere from 8 to 15 or more patients on any given shift and are expected to know the diagnosis of each patient, their food and drug allergies, their medications, their medical history, which family or friends can have information and which cannot. All this must be done within an 8 or 12 hour time frame.
When a new nurse hits the floor, his or her limited experience is usually with no more than 4 to 6 patients at a time. With this ratio, she can practice nursing the way nursing schools teach her too. The problem is the nurse who is the mentor for the new nurse usually just does not have time to truly teach the newcomer as it becomes so much easier to just do it his or herself, and thus new nurses are "fed to the wolves". It is not intentional; it is just how it is.
With administrators whose backgrounds are usually in business instead of medicine, it's no wonder more and more demands are placed on nurses daily. Coupled with increasing regulations from insurance companies and the government and cutbacks by administrators to try to meet these regulations, the demands on the nurse increase but it is the patients that ultimately suffer.
To someone who may be considering nursing as a profession, let me share with you the positive side of it. I do not believe all who have passed the nursing exams should have a license. I believe nursing is a calling and I still very much believe in the nurse's role as the patient's advocate. Nurses can make a difference, a difference in the lives of each and every patient they care for. A good nurse will, despite the demands of her supervisors, take the time needed with each patient and their family because that's what he/she is there for.
Daily, all around the world, a nurse somewhere catches a mistake, recognizes dangerous changes in a patient, comforts family, explains to patient's and their families what is going on in terms they can understand and makes a patient feel better just by smiling and taking a few minutes to just talk to the patient. This is what we do as nurses.
All professions have their down side and nursing is no exception. For the right person the positives far outweigh the negatives and he or she will survive being a new nurse and continue on to be a great nurse.
