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Redefining self is the key to break through the barriers.

Why is Nursing not in the top ten most stressful jobs for 2014! By Carlos Feliciano, RN, MSN, CHC Last week I worked a 12-hour shift at the medical surgical unit. I stood up all night and ran (actually speed-walked) from one room to another non-stop answering call bells, cleaning poop, feeding patients, lifting patients, dealing with upset family members, passing schedule and as-needed medications, talking doctors, educating patients and their families, and re-assessing patients at least twice per shift. I was exhausted, and about 30 minutes before shift change I realized that…OMG!!! I had not seen the patient on room 230 at all during my shift. I had forgotten all of her meds, wound care, and blood work so I panicked! I thought, was she even alive? What was I going to do? Was I going to lose my job? And then… I woke up. My heart was in my throat, and I was hyperventilating like I’d had just ran a marathon. Once I was able to settle down, I thanked the All Mighty that it was just a dream. Sounds familiar?! Although I am retired, I still have those dreams, so imagine my surprise when I read an article published by Yahoo Business earlier this week, which listed the 10 most stressful jobs for 2014, and nursing wasn’t one of them. The list included some professions worthy jobs like: enlisted military members (as a former enlisted member, I can agree), police officers, firefighters, airline pilots, military generals, taxi drivers, event coordinators, newspaper reporters, public relations executives, and senior corporate executives. As I scratched my head in disbelieve, I sought to find out the methodology used to justify why nursing wasn’t in the top ten most stressful jobs. It turned out their methodology was based on the following: Travel amounts, income growth potential, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, own life at risk, life of others at risk and meeting the public. So I went down the list. So, are you telling me that the physical demands of a taxi driver are more stressful than that of nurses, or that the senior corporate executives encounter more hazards at work than nurses do? Are we to assume that public relations executives have to deal with public demands that are harsher that those that nurses have to deal with in a daily basis, and that have cost some of them their lives? Is an event coordinator more challenged by a “Bridezilla”, than a nurse with 6 patients during the mid-morning med-pass? Are we to believe that missed deadlines by a newspaper reporter will cause more harm and stress than a missed blood pressure medication, or a blood thinner? I could go on and on, but the most important question that we must ask as a profession is: Have we become so irrelevant that no one wonders why nursing wasn’t on the list? In the last couple of years the nursing community has expressed outrage about the way that nurses has been portrait on TV. From drunks to drug addicts, from aloof to unintelligent, but no one has questioned why is it that we have so little influence in the drafting of healthcare policies within our organizations, our community health, as well as at the state and local level. We are the qualitative experts, but few understand or value what we bring to the healthcare team. As long as we continue to sit idle and wait to be recognized as a community of hardworking experts, our personal efforts will continue to go unrecognized, nursing burnout will increase exponentially, and nursing as a whole will be replaced for more money making and cheaper alternatives.

Disabled, but not unable: the rebirth of a nurse! July 2012 was a time of joy, second only to my May 2012 wedding (married my best friend) and the birth of my children 20 something years ago. I had just completed my MSN and was ready to take on the world with the limitations that Paget’s disease and a sacral fracture would allow. I wasn’t in perfect health, but I could teach and mentor nurses, and, let’s face it, one of the great perks about been a nursing instructor is that you always have a lift team at your disposal. Then it happened. The pain from my lower back started radiating to down through my gluts down my legs.I could not move, sit, stand, walk or lie down without the stabbing pain from my hips down to my legs. Nothing made it better! A few weeks later my pain management doctor explained to me that due to my Paget’s disease my affected bones were being remodeled in a way that was impinging nerves from my lumbar spine to the sacral area, and that it didn’t help that my lumbar spine and hips were festered with arthritis. His prognosis: “this is a good as you will get”, and that I would likely experience pain similar to those with bone cancer. Needless to say, I was in a bad place. I could no longer provide for my family. I could no longer provide bedside care. I could no longer make a difference in the life of new nurses. I couldn’t even help out at home while the love of my life was out there doing it all for us. Soon, depression set in. I asked myself daily: What was I worth, if I couldn’t work and support my family? Many sleepless and pain ridden nights went by, as I fought pain rather than medicating, so that I could at least spend quality time with my loved ones. But one of those sleepless nights turning the TV changed my life. As it if were meant to be, a documentary about people with disabilities was being shown when the TV turned on. Missing arms, missing legs, blindness from birth, and yet each one of this remarkable people had succeeded into becoming self-reliant and independent. They were mothers and fathers, some professional and artisans. They made the impossible look normal and they were happy! I asked myself, “How could that be?" I realized then that they didn’t see themselves as limited. They simply rose to the challenge with the tools that they had. They had needs, desires, and dreams that they wanted met. So why couldn’t I muster that same strength? After all, I was able to speak, to write, to educate, to advocate and to empathize. Soon my cane went from being the symbol of my weakness to being the symbol of my perseverance. My pain went from being my shackle to being my anchor and my wind. I was free! Free to live my new life, to set new goals, to reset old goals, and to let go of those goals that were no longer part of my reality. I gave myself permission to dream again, to give again and to once again feel worthwhile. I still reminisce of how things could have been, but no longer as the defeated human being that I was. I may not be able to run somewhere, but I can still get there. I may not be able to lift 20lbs, but I can still lift spirits. I know no bounds! I am a disabled nurse, I am proud!