What it takes to be a nurse
Dear Reader,
I have just finished watching a very truth seeking, touching movie called “Wit”. An excellent film to be sure, the closet to the realism of the health care system and patient’s experiences with Cancer that I have ever seen. It made me think about so many things..some of which I will write tomorrow but one thought for today….What does it take to be a great nurse?
In each profession I would say that you could train a person to learn skills and be competent in them. However, I believe that there must be some kind of intrinsic quality that allows that person to perform optimally. And I thought to myself, “What is nursing all about? What is the truth or the lesson of humanity that nursing truly contributes to make this world the way it should be?
You could train any person to hang an IV medication, teach a patient to change an ostomy, teach crutch walking or answer phones and take doctor orders. However, this is not what nurses add to the greater picture.
I walked up to a patient the other day who was sitting outside with her family. Remarkable to see her up, I went over to her as I was walking in for my shift and said hello, put my arm around her and conversed with her family. Motivating a person to get up an walk after hip surgery, offering coffee to a dying patients’family, making anyone on your unit smile for any reason, being able to work through terrible abuse from patients, going home and not crying every single day because sickness is not only your work but part of your life…singing a patient a song…..The list is endless but I believe that these qualities are what it takes to be A.) Be a nurse, B.) Be a great nurse, and C.) make a contribution to this work that seeks out what life is all about and offers it to others. It is not that I have given pain medication to a patient so that they may be strong enough to go for a walk…it is that I am the arm around their waist, walking with them, telling jokes and making them smile. That is what nursing is all about…
