misouritraveller

nurses have to realize that they can control their own destiny. over 2 and a half nurses in the usa can make a very definite change in legistration if they become active in their local politics. this activism can change the attitude of hospital administrators and corporations that nurses don't make money for the hospital since their individual tasks are included in the room charge. without nurses to care and treat the patients the large buildings that house patients would be nonexistant. nurses are caring individuals and feel a responsibility to their patients, hospital organizations and adminstors take advantage of this. they accuses nurses of abandoning their patients when nurses organize and walk out in reponse to depressingly low wages insufficient to support their families. yes, nurses can make a living wage but not in all areas of the country. there are more single parents supporting families today then 20 years ago. these indiduals have to work ot or second positions to suport their famislies in the more expensive sections of the us. adding degrees to their resume doesn't solve the economic or shortage problem here in the usa. many who attain the advance degree move out of bedside nursing into administration or other areas. when they get into administration they soon forget their roots and buy into the hospital's bottom line at all costs thinking.

in response to the change of careers of the factory worker and the social worker who became nurses not having the calling, i think you are wrong. if they hadn't had the calling in their soul they never would have become the "great" nurses you discribe. the calling doesn't mean you are driven but this desire from birth but find that after years doing something else you find that this is the niche you really were meant to occupy for your life's work.

nursing instructors continue to tell new students tha they will make them nurses. wrong nursing is a calling similar to the ministry. i have both callings and feel that nursing can be used to comfort and encourage those patients that are fearful and in pain. i don't preach to my patients but encourage them to talk about their feelings about their illness and what scares them most. most have told me its not knowing what's happening with their care not the illness or death. the unkonwn is more frightening than death. if you got into nursing for the money or "glory" or to further yourself with self agrandizing titles and degrees then i feel lyou are in the wrong career. those who entered nursing when i did who were intrigued with money and prestige to be gain are no longer in nursing. they still have their license, degrees, and their prestige because they are instructors but not nurses. they have been away from the reality of nursing and changes in the real world of health care not the information in books but in the trenches. nurses have to have a calling to be willing to clean a patient who has soiled himself/herself, clean up emesis whether is is food or blood, hold the hand of a lonely dying patient who came from a nursing home with no family left comfort them or cry with a family when a child passes or a grandparent or parent passes. the emotional draining of the above is often offset by the patient that thanks you for saving them or changing their life or saving a family's loved one. i have experienced all the above and still thank God that i can still make a difference. the instructors i have had gave the hooks and matrix to build my career for helping my patients but they didn't make me a nurse. i had been helping others my entire life and was prepared to do so as a nurse. they just sharpend my skill level. What do you think? do a random act of kindness each day. smile at a stranger and watch how the return the smile. afterward notice its hard to be grumpy when working.