Going back to bedside nursing...

[Joymartin69]

Just feel like sharing with my colleagues...

I have spent three decades in the nursing profession. I started as a bedside nurse and enjoyed each day, despite the stressful incidents I've encountered, I realized experience and knowledge have made me who I am as a nurse and, most of all, as a person. I never imagined leaving bedside nursing up until I started exploring other avenues in my profession. It was then when I realized that there are other opportunities for professional growth aside from being a bedside nurse. Though I tried, I did not pursue management in the belief I could influence and connect with patients and their families firsthand. This is the path I chose and I am proud of it. I refuse to allow words or behavior to belittle my accomplishment, rather I expect respect and support from my leaders as I do for them. I enjoyed the camaraderie with my colleagues when things are needed in a timely manner and most of all when a patient is in a life and death situation. When I discovered outpatient setting, I felt ecstatic, like a surge of positive energy coming out from every pore of my skin. I felt alive and full of enthusiasm each day I am in the procedure room and in all the cases I am part of. This is my calling and I found my passion. My connection with my patients are beyond words could express but, I know for sure I have touched their lives and enjoyed every second providing care at the time they feel at most vulnerable. My role in my unit is to provide procedural sedation, monitor patient, scrub during cases, as well as circulate, very much away from bedside care. Due to self-fulfillment in my current practice, I realized so many years have passed by and I have been away from bedside nursing for over a decade.

With the current situation around the world, once again, I am needed to go back to the roots of my nursing experience, by going back to bedside nursing. I have my concerns and I am ambivalent when deployed back to inpatient care, so much have changed starting from technology and practice, I am worried of the uncertainty facing ahead of myself, colleagues, my family, and most of all the thought of providing care without proper personal protection. Our lives matter, we are human, and we have loved ones. To all the front line health providers and my fellow nurses, hang in there. Believe that it is alright to be afraid and your concerns are valid but if we unite, voice our needs, and demand for personal protection equipment we can accomplish everything ahead of us. I believe in you. Stay strong!