I think what adds to this stress is personalizing what happens to us at work. For many of us nursing is "who we are",our identities are caught up in our roles as nurses,as opposed to nursing being "what we do" to make a living,to survive,or to have a reasonable way of life.
If nursing is "who you are",then things that dont go our way,or failures or having a bad day will be a personal affront to our identities.If nursing is "what you do" then you can be more detached,not so wraped up in events and in the end,this will probably make us better nurses.
I think knowing the difference can help us cope,decrease burn out and wanting to tell our employer to "take this job and shove it"
And of course there are events,unethical practices,unethical occurances that should not be tolerated. I know we can all judge the differences.
Specializes in ER, PED'S, NICU, CLINICAL M., ONCO..
Certainly what I do and not what I am.
It'll sound too philosophical may be, but "I am", it is what witnesses what "I do" and what I don't do, as well.
Just to put our identity in whatever we do means "to stop being our selves to become an object or an action.
I'd better say that I am a witness of my roll in life, in this life and part of that roll is to be a Nurse.
Now, my inability to separate what I do from what I am is equivalent to my inability to cope with the stress resulting from personalizing what happens in my roll as a Nurse.
Therefore, the resulting stress is proportionally related to that inability and not to the profession it self.
Anyway, thank you ohbet for bringing me back to my self for a while. Albeit we are not (I think), no doubt "we belong", we belong to the Nursing profession. For me it is amazing and astonishing to find out that in many aspects I belong more to this group thousands of miles away from me than to my coworkers here.
vemiliob
90 Posts
It'll sound too philosophical may be, but "I am", it is what witnesses what "I do" and what I don't do, as well.
Just to put our identity in whatever we do means "to stop being our selves to become an object or an action.
I'd better say that I am a witness of my roll in life, in this life and part of that roll is to be a Nurse.
Now, my inability to separate what I do from what I am is equivalent to my inability to cope with the stress resulting from personalizing what happens in my roll as a Nurse.
Therefore, the resulting stress is proportionally related to that inability and not to the profession it self.
Anyway, thank you ohbet for bringing me back to my self for a while. Albeit we are not (I think), no doubt "we belong", we belong to the Nursing profession. For me it is amazing and astonishing to find out that in many aspects I belong more to this group thousands of miles away from me than to my coworkers here.
:kiss