What I learned my first year as a nurse. (Things they don't teach in nursing school.)

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Specializes in Geriatrics, pediatrics.

Being a nurse isn't about grades. It's about being who we are. NO book can teach you how to cry with a patient, NO class can teach you how to tell a family that their parents have died or are dying. NO professor can teach you how to find dignity in giving someone a bed bath. A nurse is NOT about the pills, the IV's and the charting. It's about being able to LOVE people when they are at their WEAKEST moments and being able to forgive them for ALL their wrongs and make a difference in their lives today. No one can make you a nurse... YOU JUST ARE

I got this quote from facebook, and I just had to post it here. I've been working in a nursing home and it's so true.:twocents:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac.
Being a nurse isn’t about grades. It’s about being who we are. NO book can teach you how to cry with a patient, NO class can teach you how to tell a family that their parents have died or are dying. NO professor can teach you how to find dignity in giving someone a bed bath. A nurse is NOT about the pills, the IV’s and the charting. It’s about being able to LOVE people when they are at their WEAKEST moments and being able to forgive them for ALL their wrongs and make a difference in their lives today. No one can make you a nurse… YOU JUST ARE

I got this quote from facebook, and I just had to post it here. I've been working in a nursing home and it's so true.:twocents:

Actually, I found many Instructors who showed me dignity in giving a bed bath by helping me and showing me through example. And being a nurse isn't about grades, but being a nursing student is.

And nurses who aren't about IVs Pills and charting aren't very good nurses. A nurse is about all of that and more. Ivs Pills and charting are very important to everyone!

Oh, and in my Palliative Care class, I've been able to discuss and explore many of my experiences related to death and dying of my patients, which most certainly HAS taught me to be a better nurse than I was previously when it comes to the death of my patients.

Sorry to be a downer, but that paragraph posted in another one of those "angels of Mercy" things, where we downplay educuation and training, and focus on something else.

We can give a wonderful, diginified bed bath, cry with our patients, chart the whole thing, and still be smart, intellegent and a incredible advocate for them all. We can and should do it all, instead of focusing on the whole "Nurses are angles" thing.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

That quote was very nice ! I also think CardiacRN made some good points as well, but maybe just took it a little too far in taking the quote literally.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, pediatrics.

In my case this is how I interpret the quote: It's not about downplaying education, it's about possessing all the true qualities needed to be a good nurse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Love the post!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, wound care.

To be an excellent nurse, you need the heart as well as the knowledge.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

You also have to care for the unlovable

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks,:yeah: it put a smile on my face!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Actually, I found many Instructors who showed me dignity in giving a bed bath by helping me and showing me through example. And being a nurse isn't about grades, but being a nursing student is.

And nurses who aren't about IVs Pills and charting aren't very good nurses. A nurse is about all of that and more. Ivs Pills and charting are very important to everyone!

Oh, and in my Palliative Care class, I've been able to discuss and explore many of my experiences related to death and dying of my patients, which most certainly HAS taught me to be a better nurse than I was previously when it comes to the death of my patients.

Sorry to be a downer, but that paragraph posted in another one of those "angels of Mercy" things, where we downplay educuation and training, and focus on something else.

We can give a wonderful, diginified bed bath, cry with our patients, chart the whole thing, and still be smart, intellegent and a incredible advocate for them all. We can and should do it all, instead of focusing on the whole "Nurses are angles" thing.

Awesome post.

Nursing is an evidence based practice, with quite a bit of education crammed into a small amount of time. I agree with you that in order to be taken more seriously (as so many on here often rant and gripe about), we will have to rise above these sorts of 'everything happens for a reason' platitudes.

Thank you so much for articulating this much than I could have. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CRNA.

I do not often agree with the cranial nerve mnemonic guy, but I think he is on to something. I do not think that loving or crying with a patient will make you an excellent nurse. I actually tend to believe that being emotional distracts from others you are responsible for and I have many "anecdotal" memories of other nurses' actions to back this up. I think being a great nurse has more to do with the understanding of science and combining it with an "art" to ensure your patients have the best outcome possible. After all, if it wasn't for all the cool toys, pharmacology, and flexibility of the profession....I would have never gone to nursing school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I do not often agree with the cranial nerve mnemonic guy

LOL. It might disturb you to know how many around here don't know what it means. We all had to take A and P right?

I think being a great nurse has more to do with the understanding of science and combining it with an "art" to ensure your patients have the best outcome possible.

This is 100% my philosophy regarding nursing. I've heard way too many of my instructors (and nurses) spend 2 hours ranting about how nursing is an evidence based practice, and yet then go on these other fluffy talks about how nursing is exclusively the realm of wiping butts, crying, and "Love Is" cartoons. And people wonder why nurses don't get more respect?

Patient care is important, and so is showing empathy. That's part of the "art" of it, as you said. I can and have cried with patients before, but only because my and the doctors best efforts didn't have the outcome we all wanted, and that's where the science and fact-based knowledge come in to play. You have to have that before you can care so much about being empathetic.

Crawl, walk, etc.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MICU, SICU, CRRT,.

Not necessarily related to the quote itself, but the single most important lesson i have learned is that nursing is not a textbook. Patients are not typical and by the book. Illness manifests differently in different people, and nursing school is just the foundation of all the knowledge a succesful nurse needs. It is designed to teach facts and assist with critical thinking, but you cant force someone to think outside the box. True, a "likeable" nurse is the one that is very compassionate, loving, ad giving to others, but a good, or even great nurse has the proper balance of academics, compassion, caring, and knows where to look to find out the answers on those patients that arent the "typical" ones we are taught about in school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment