Nobody Cares About Our Feelings When it's Time to Perform

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

There is a pervasive phenomenon in society that is known as negativity bias. In essence, this means that peoples' minds are more keenly attuned to negative occurrences and have been programmed to remember derogatory events years after they have happened. As an example, people who experienced severe bullying as schoolchildren tend to have photographic memories of the unkind insults and physical altercations decades after the last incidence, but are less inclined to remember the uneventful school days that went well. How does any of this relate to nursing or healthcare? Perhaps further explanation is warranted.

A typical nurse can execute tens of thousands of positive, selfless accomplishments during a career that has spanned the course of many years. Nonetheless, all it takes is one grave mistake or sentinel event. A seasoned nurse who ignores assessment findings of increased edema and wet, gurgling lung sounds will be remembered the most for that mistake if the patient ends up coding and dying before the end of the shift. Thus, a nurse could have helped save the lives of thousands of other patients, but the single negative incidence of failure to rescue is what will stand out in the minds of his peers.

There has also been a recent increase in the number of inquiries about the possibility of appealing dismissals from nursing programs for failing a couple of courses, or submitting an appeal after badly failing a final exam, or even challenging professors because of the perception that the test was 'horrible.' The excuses that these inquirers make for the substandard performance possess some notable variances: "I was working a job with long hours that consumed all my time while going to school," or "My sibling died," or "That professor does not know how to teach a class."

The harsh, brutal reality is that people are expected to perform without excuses. Nobody, other than perhaps our family members and closest friends, really gives a rat's butt about what we are feeling when it is time to perform. Society is a coldly efficient bureaucracy filled with members who do not care all that much about our personal lives or what we might be feeling inside at any given moment. When it is time to render services in this society in which we live, no one really cares that the cardiothoracic surgeon's husband died while serving in Afghanistan three months ago if a heart transplantation prodecure needs to be performed now. When it is time to serve meals in the hospital or nursing home, people couldn't care less that the depressed dietary aide became homeless last year and has been temporarily living in a shelter with his wife and three children.

A person's value to society as a whole is partially established by his or her usefulness to others. Hence, people who have been determined to be too cumbersome (read: not stepping up to the place to be terribly useful) are tossed aside and disposed of like garbage. If a person fails to perform, or performs in a substandard manner, negativity bias will plague the person, and people will most certainly move onto whomever can fulfill their needs and provide services.

As difficult as this sounds, we are all very much replaceable in bureaucratic entities such as schools and businesses. A student whose performance is not up to par can and will be replaced. A healthcare professional whose performance is not up to par can also be replaced. The nursing professors and administrative personnel at schools of nursing truly will not care about the student's 1,000+ good grades on previous assignments and tests; rather, their focus is on the couple of failed courses. The state board of nursing does not care about the nurse's 2,500+ successful shifts in the cardiovascular intensive care unit if one patient died due to omission of care. People focus on the here and now.

We are all extremely disposable and replaceable in the bureaucracies that pervade an increasingly depersonalized society. It is called negativity bias. Therefore, it is time to carefully consider the ramifications of fixating on an event that did not progress as well as you had hoped it would. After all, we can rest assured that society will swiftly move on without you if you do not perform at a minimal standard.

References

Marano, H.E. (2003). Our Brain's Negative Bias. Psychology Today. Retrieved from Our Brain's Negative Bias | Psychology Today

Nobody Cares About Our Feelings When it's Time to Perform

About TheCommuter, BSN, RN