My topic for my community paper this week is: What one word can describe your relationships
with others that have created the nurse you are today? You may be surprised at how many of you will
have the same characteristics, yet there will be a few that stand out, please
choose a handful of words and give insight as to what they mean.
Supportive. Providing
encouragement or emotional help. Every
one of us should provide encouragement to those around us. We cannot function as a society unless we
encourage others to meet their goals.
Life is all about success, but in order to reach success, we must fail
and that is when encouragement is needed.
A nurse must be supportive of her patients, the doctors, and the
staff. We must support our patients and their
decisions about their medical treatment, even if we do not believe they are
making the right choice. This is
particularly hard in the oncology department, especially dealing with family
members who have a loved one who is dying.
We must support our doctors and the orders they write, even though we
may think they are completely wrong because they do not know the patient like
we do. We must support our staff and
coworkers whether we like them or not.
Under one roof we must work together like we love each other and leave
our drama at the door because a life is on the line.
Eye-opening. Causing
one to understand what was not previously known. We all open each other’s eyes. No human is identical to another (twins can
be identical but they have two different personalities). This is what helps us shape one another. We help others see what they cannot see about
themselves and experiences. A nurse must
open their patients’ eyes and help to educate them on what is best in their
health. It may take a few nurses to do
this to some patients who have a lifestyle they are used to but with
persistence we can help to get through to our patients.
Powerful. Having
great power or strength. Impactful. Having a major impact or effect. We may not appear to be the strongest person,
but let me tell you, this 105-pound girl can lift a patient pretty well. Okay, that is not the only power you need as
a nurse. We must have the power to stand
up for our patients and ourselves. It is
our job to make an impact on the health world.
It is powerful when a nurse questions a doctor, but it is even more
powerful to question that doctor to help a patient. It is a nasty world out there in nursing at
times and we must have the power to stand up for ourselves because nurses eat
their young. We have the power to impact
a life, and we must seize that opportunity.
Who knows if our power is one that stops an addiction or starts a
change?
Hysterical.
Uncontrollable emotion. You must
be hysterical if you ever think you are going to be a nurse until you
retire. There are so many stressful
moments that you must release it with humor.
Whether it be stuffing your cheeks with marshmallows and saying chubby
bunny until you laugh so hard you spit them everywhere or talking about c-diff
at the dinner table. We have a different
sense of personal space or boundaries when it comes to nursing humor. We often forget that our family members do
not want to hear about the blood tinged sputum we had to scoop up and send to
the lab while eating fries and ketchup.
However, it makes us who we are and it helps us get through the rough
times.
Serendipitous.
Discovered by chance. We have a
family, but friends are discovered by chance.
We need those serendipitous relationships. We need more than family. A person cannot achieve their goals with
family alone. A professor, a study
buddy, the admissions counselor, an instructor, a janitor, the builder, all
help us achieve our goals even if they do not even come into contact with
us. A nurse has many serendipitous
relationships. Some patients we are
thankful to meet by chance and others we would like to have never met. The ones we would have liked to never meet
are the ones who often impact us the most.
They teach us about patience, about impact, about a lifestyle we never
want to head towards. We change because of
those who show us the least because we want to be the best we can be.
Organizational.
Relating to organization.
Organization is the key to my success.
There is no way I could become a nurse without my color-coded
planner. Thank you to a good friend
named Patience (ironically you need patience to become organized), whose
planner I happened to see one day highlighted different colors based on each of
her classes, kids, and jobs, I am now OCD organized. It helps me to build more experiences into my
life than just being a nurse. These
additional experiences in turn help me to become a better nurse. We must volunteer with other organizations so
that we learn about the populations that need help. When we encounter that population in the
hospital, we are comfortable. Therefore,
we must be organized so that we can incorporate opportunity into our lives the
four days a week that we are not at the hospital.
Dedicated. Devoted to
a task or purpose. We are all dedicated
to something in our lives, whether it be our job, our family, or a hobby. Dedication helps give meaning to our
lives. When we are devoted to a purpose
we help others learn that purpose. We
spread the word. Nurses are dedicated to
helping patients and each other. We
devote 12 hours to complete strangers.
For 12 hours a day, 36 hours a week, we tolerate coworkers who may get
on our every last nerve because we are devoted to one purpose, patients. Our dedication may be to tasks, to preparing
a patient for surgery or feeding the babies in the neonatal intensive care
unit. Our dedication may also be to our
purpose, serve the patients who come in our doors for help when they are
vulnerable.
Honest.
Straightforwardness, fair, sincere.
Honesty is the key to success in the nursing field. You must be honest when you make a
mistake. We are all human and it
happens, but you better hope it doesn’t kill a patient. Honesty is asking for help before you need
serious help. We all do not know the
answers to everything, but when we are honest to each other about needing help,
the safest patient care will be delivered.
We must also be honest to our patients.
If we do not know the answer, admit it and find it out. There is always someone who knows the answer
it may just take a little bit of time to find it out. Sometimes you have to be honest with your
patient because the doctor is beating around the bush. The patients trust us, we are there with them
for 12 straight hours. They want to know
the truth and when we are not honest with them, it will cause issues.
