Strongest Asset(s) for Nursing

[Luv2banurse2004]

Just wanted to find out from other nursing students what do you believe is your strongest asset that will help you in your career as a nurse?

I believe mine is empathy. I remember reading a quote that described empathy as "your pain in my heart" and I try to always stay in tune with the feelings and emotions of others. I'm usually the one friends and family come to to talk about problems and get advice. I have always been the kind of person to go out of my way to try to help someone with whatever resources I have or know of. I thought it was very flattering that in my last job at a law office one of the clients, a retired doctor, was informed by the attorney that I was going to school to be a nurse. The doctor said "I can tell by her personality that she will make a great nurse." Made me feel real good about choosing this profession!

[LydiaGreen]

Hm... there are so many personality traits that an effective nurse needs to have. Empathy is certainly in the top ten, but you have to remember not to let empathy become sympathy, that's a line you cannot cross if you want to provide patient care. Empathy is understanding and acceptance of a patient and their circumstances, sympathy is feeling their pain... if you feel their pain, it will affect your judgment. Close to the top of the list, is the ability to detach. I know, that might sound cold and harsh, but it doesn't mean turning off your heart, it just means being able to seperate yourself from the situation enough to enable you to provide appropriate care. It's a self-defense mechanism and is the key between a long nursing career, and burn-out. That doesn't mean you aren't affected emotionally; it just allows you to postpone it until after you are done your shift and can go home to have a good cry.

Critical thinking is another.

I have heard of doctors being accused of "thinking they are God" but I have also witnessed nurses doing the same thing. So, I think that it is important for nurses to remain grounded and "human".

Another, is most definitely becoming comfortable with death. I don't mean when the ER receives a MVA, or something equally unexpected. I mean the patients who are suffering and have been for some time. Becoming comfortable with death will help you help the patient transition from life to whatever lies beyond, and help the family too.

Critical thinking is also way up on there on the list. I saw a patient with syncope, severely hypotensive, racing heart rate, etc. He mentioned something about his pills... each time he had one of these episodes at home he would treat himself with an antihypertensive! He thought his pills were in his bag and couldn't remember if he had taken one or not. One of the other students wanted to run blood tests to check for these meds in his blood! Where she got that, I don't know. I checked his bag, checked the patient med lock-up, checked the med-room, checked the cardex (he hadn't had any antihypertensives since the previous morning), checked one of the admission sheets and it stated that the man's meds had been taken home by his family... called the family and sure enough they had taken the meds home so at least he wasn't self-medicating in the hospital. It wasn't overmedication, asked the charge nurse if we should do an EKG because his heart just didn't sound right to me on auscultation (I can recognize normal, and abnormal... no idea what the different types of abnormal are, just know when heart sounds are wrong). Poor guy was in Afib, it was missed in his pre-op screening because, like many others, his heart just hops in and out at will. I have no idea what the lab tech would have said if the other student had called for such a blood test... certainly would've taken a lot longer than the two or three minutes it took me to check all of the places, call the family and order the EKG. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I am sure there was probably a more effective way to deal with the situation than how I did, just want to point out that sometimes critical thinking means not looking to technology, but looking at the paper work and talking to the client and/or family. We have to remember to treat the patient, not the technology we have available to use on them.