Just have to share- pt's spouse's thoughts on nursing.

[suanna]

I had a criticaly ill patient fresh out of OR the other day. IABP, multiple pressors, ectopy, bleeding, pacer.... After an hour or two I got him settled enough to have his wife in. After reviewing his clinical status, and reassuring her that I had seen many patients as sick as her husband do just fine in my 25 years in critical care, I was going over visiting policy I mentioned no-one under age 16yrs on the unit. They had a boy, (looked 12yrs) that she said was considering nursing as a career. I advised her to have him explore the opportunities in the area, talk to some nurses before deciding on that career path in that nursing isn't for everyone. Her response was that "they were hoping after he finished his nursing degree, HE WOULD RETURN TO SCHOOL AND COMPLETE A DEGREE IN SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT AND CHALLENGING!!!!????" (My, didn't I feel proud to be her husbands nurse and to have used my vast skills to drag him back from the brink of death. Can you imagine what I could do if I had a real education in something worthwhile?) WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT? I just told her she could only hope for the best!

[morphed]

"Ugh, you're right, you could save lives in nursing but at the end of the day what have you really accomplished? I might go back for a degree in business administration." hahaha (no offense to anyone with a degree in that :))

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

This thread mirrors the one aspect of nursing that is the major cause of burn out and strained compassion:

Nurses work hard, they develop and utilize an educated body of knowledge and they work under extreme conditions to save lives. Often, we are pushed to our limits by administration and management to the point where nothing but the most general/generic care is possible. Simply passing meds and keeping people safe is really all that can be accomplished given the situations we are put in. Then, at the end of the day, despite having assessed a new onset arrhythmia and spending our entire day getting this pt. transfered to the proper unit for care..........we are told we are "bad nurses" or "lack the education for holistic care" or "are burned out" because, during the arrhythmia crisis............we forgot to take room 1503 their requested Ginger-ale.

That sums up most of my days as an RN, it has been the predominant story of my career in the medical field (CNA, RN).

Situations like the one discussed in this topic are all too commonplace. Problem is, they are not going to go away. It is what it is. We can't change it. We can change ourselves though. One thing I have determined to be my biggest obstacle in becoming the nurse I want to be is learning to be an RN for the sake of being a good RN, not for pats on the back or social/professional acceptance. I find the more I seek acceptance from co-workers, the more I expect respect from admininstration/management and the more I desire gratitude from society............the less I like nursing. I am at my best as a nurse when I am serving my fellow man/woman in their time of need for the sake of easing their pain during a difficult time.

[cmonkey]

just acknowledging that there are, in fact, things to do that are both more difficult and more important than nursing.

Well, duh.