Rate your "caring" vs "knowledge"

[Ryan RN]

For all my fellow male nurses out there, state your department and rate your "caring" and rate your "knowledge/expertise" in your area/department

As an ER nurse, i feel like my "caring" could be better, but my knowledge makes up for it plus some RN CEN CCRN, 5 yrs exp, 4 in the ER Caring - 3, knowledge - 8.5

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

ed care, oncology care, trauma care, diabetes care, flight nurse care, endocrinology care, pulmonary care, cardio care, or care, pacu care, icu & ccu care, gi care, med/surg. care, infectious diseases care, private duty care, methadone clinic care, ortho care, podiatrist care, hepatology care, dialysis care, urology care, neuro care, and since i have enough letters of the alphabet plus the years after my name, i can truly state that my caring goes hand in hand with my knowledge

[CountyRat]

Surgical ICU, Psych, Occupational Health, Health Education. I do not know how to quantify my knowledge or calculate a knowledge/caring ratio. What I do know is that people are who they are. The best any of us can do is use what we have (in whatever quantity we have it) in the best interest of our patients. None of us are all things to all patients, and we will not provide better care by trying (pretending?) to be.

When I worked in ICU, I often had the thought go through my head, "this patient really should have a better nurse than me!" That mentality interfered with my ability to take the best care of some of my patients. Then, one day, another thought came into my head; "yes it would be great for the best nurse in the world to be taking care of this patient, but the best nurse in the world is not available tonight and there is nothing that I can do about that. What I can do, is make sure that this patient gets the best Nurse CountyRat in the world." It may sound funny, but it made a huge difference. No, I am still not the best nurse in the world, or anywhere near that. However, I am the best nurse that I can be, and experience has proven that that is good enough to provide my patients excellent care.

Go easy on yourself, bro.