taken from a manifesto written May 2007How different would my job be if I actually got to "take care" of my patients? Provide patient care as needed, give meds, watch for side effects, assess all of them, head to toe, every shift, sit with them, do teaching as necessary, and make sure they are comfortable, safe, clean and happy? Seriously? What if I was actually able to do that?
we all wear so many hats in the course of our shifts...waitress, housekeeping, doctor nag, family/medical team liaision, messenger, ass wiper, secretary and scheduler, phlebotomist, management liaision, nursing assistant nag, stocking supplier, drama queen, gossip hound, drama diffuser, sounding board, complaint department, customer relations, public relations, setting-the-record-straight-er, multitasker, etc etc etc.
I am a NURSE. Get it?? R.N. stands for REGISTERED NURSE. I take care of SICK PEOPLE. My badge does not read, "your sounding board/ass kisser/pillow fluffer/tray fetcher" the list goes on. I am not your bitch, your handmaid, your well-of-patience-kind-angel. And I am most certainly not a ditzy sexpot, as I so often see nurses portrayed these days. I am not a doormat and I am not to be yelled at or disrespected. If I have your patient or your loved one in my care, you best not raise your voice to me. Doctor, daughter, son, family member, whatever. I am not your serving wench. Doctors, residents, medical students, interns, sub-interns, whatever you are-- I am your colleague and cohort and I expect to be treated as nothing else. You WILL respect me. You could not do your job without me. You will write legibly and you will explain to the patient what the plan is, or else you can bet your ass I will call you at 2AM because the patient is freaking out about their plan of care and doesn't know what's going on. This is why you get paid more than me--because you have to be on call and once I clock out, I am *the fuck* out of there. Out like plaid. You get paid to take calls in the middle of the night to address patient issues. This is what you signed up for. So do NOT give me an attitude, or a hard time, or question me. AND do not fuck with me. Do you think I enjoy paging you at all hours? Do you think I get off on paging you at all? I am your eyes and ears. You best say please and thank you and yes you will take that chart up to the main nurses' station because there are 5 of us up here charting and NONE of us are secretaries.
And patients--you can be demanding and require a lot of me, but if you show me respect and say please and thank you, I will get you the sun, moon and stars. I will go out of my way to help you and make you well as best as I can. But you better not take me for granted and you better not treat me as if you are my only patient, my only priority. *I* decide who is my priority. *I* decide who gets seen when. I don't care who you are, or who your wealthy celebrity family member is, or how schwank you think this joint is, or how hungry and noncompliant you are. I don't care where you live or what your last name is. I don't care what your background is or how smart (or ignorant) you are. Let me use my professional judgment in caring for you, and I will explain to you what I am going to do. And *I* will determine who gets what care in what order. My license depends on it. I heed my instinct and trust my skills. Just because you are a powerful attorney who wants some ice water doesn't mean dick when your full-code roommate is breathing 40 a minute and having mental status changes. You're in a hospital, not a hotel. Deal with it.
There is only one of me. I cannot divide myself in half, and if I could I'd be half as effective. I only have 2 arms and two legs and one brain to process all of this.
The system is not set up to benefit anyone but the shareholders and the hospital board and anyone who stands to profit from patients coming in and out. The rest of it is just bullshit teetering on the edge of ineffective, bureaucratic meltdown. And at the center of it are nurses, hardworking, humble and overworked, undervalued yet somehow always dedicated individuals just coming to work every day to do what they do best and trying to carve a life out for themselves after hours, when they're off the clock, recovering in between shifts.
This is not your normal job. This is not easy work. This is not often left "at work." We get invested in our jobs. We immerse our whole selves in this profession. We feel and we do. We cry and hurt and want to scream for our patients, at our patients, because of our patients. We cry with them, too. We get peed on and bled on and shit on and God help us all if you cultured the soles of our work shoes. We can talk about any kinds of bodily fluids or effluent whilst at lunch, without even thinking twice. We hold the hands of the dying and gently wash and wrap the bodies of the dead. We help prep little 90 year olds for colonoscopies, helping them on and off the bedside commodes when they only weight 80 pounds soaking wet and are shitting their brains out so the GI doctor can pay for his next vacation. We question orders that may or may not be in the patient's best interest. We call a senior resident on a back-talking intern who was rude to a patient and call medical administration when a doctor can't be reached and no physician wants to accept responsibility for a situation that requires immediate attention.
yes, these things do happen. And the buck stops with us.
What is it going to take for people to see that the state of "health care" in this country will not change until nursing changes?
doctors don't make you well, or cure you, or fix you. nurses do.
