My feeling is this (and I have worked LTC as an RN almost 7 yrs). Your job can not turn you into anything. We all cope and deal with interpersonal, environmental and situational stress in different ways. Seems nursing somehow brings out either the best, or the worst in those of us who have chosen this path. CHOSE being the key word. Just as we have chosen this profession. We also make daily, hourly decisions and choices regarding how we deal with and react to our co-workers, mgmt, patients, families, MD's etc. I go into work each day making a very conscious choice to be pleasant, respectful and positive. Nothing, or no one can MAKE me be anything other than what I chose to be. Sure, circumstances arise that can challenge my outlook/attitude on any number of things. But allowing myself to become negative and nasty is completely counterproductive. The patient's pick up on the negativity, be sure of that. Think about it. Sometimes you, the professional nurse (and staff) might be the only human interaction our patient's have on a consistent basis. Especially those poor older folks who don't have loving families that come to visit. WE are all they have. It is SO NOT FAIR to the very prople who count on us to have to be exposed to our negativity. Plenty of nurses are hateful and negative with one another and then put on the phoney sweet smile for the matter of minutes they spend with a patient. Well maybe if the nurse wasn't so caught up in her/his own negative (bs). They just might spend an extra minute or two to be genuinely interested and concerned for the patient. Not just slap on a smile and get in and out of their room asap. Although compassion is not "cost effective", and even though we nurses are only human who can so easily let low staffing ratios, sub par mgmt, certain co-workers who may rub us the wrong way and so on... get under our skin so much so that it effects our professionalism, not to mention our productivity and what we project outwardly to others. Subconsciously those NURSES who DON'T strive everyday to make the right CHOICE to make the best out of resources (however limeted), to truly try and give our co-workers and our patients the benefit of the doubt, to make lemonade when lemons are being thrown at us from all directions. After so long it becomes increasing difficult to remain positive and it seems the stressors of just being a nurse in this day and age does effect some nurses who choose not to make a concerted, conscious effort EVERYDAY to stay positive, remain calm and not to start, or buy into the backstabbing and gossip that is running rampent in this profession. I don't know about others. I can only speak for myself. But in the grand scheme of things; I have found being pleasant and positive certainly makes my day better as well as those around me. I would rather go find another profession if I were really so unhappy and hateful in my position as a nurse whether RN, or LPN. My day, my attitude and what I project to others are a direct reflection of my desire and true essence of the nurse that I am. The nurse that I AM makes choices to remain consistently positive. When challenging situations are presented to me during my daily routine. I stop, take a deep breath. Remember the oath I took 7 years ago, which in turn inspires me to dig deep if I must and take a negative, then somehow, someway extract the positive and use it constructively if at all possible. If not, then learn valuable lessons from it in order to react to similar circumstances differently when they arise in the future. Bottom line is... and as I have stated all along. NOTHING and NO ONE can MAKE me be hateful and unhappy as much as it is how I decide to deal with and process things. Heck no! It is not always the easiest path at the time. In the long run though. It helps me keep my sanity and lets the patients who are entrusted to my care know that I am interested, invested and easy to approach with any concerns they may have. For most of these patient's, this is the roughest thing they have had to deal with in their lifves. I owe it to myself, to my patient's and to my employer to make good choices. I chose positive, compassionate care and am darn proud of it!!!
