As many nurses can tell you, nursing today can be a love-hate career with fulfilling, life-changing moments providing excellent patient care, to frustrating interactions, devastating outcomes coupled with sheer exhaustion, for starters.
The passion that burns within nurses, at times, might be more powerful than modern medicine. However in a society with ever-changing healthcare regulations and the constant need to do more with less, the pressures may be more than many nurses signed up for. Whatever the situation, one thing is certain, a nurse is never “just” a nurse.
In the 2016 Miss America talent competition, Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson, a registered nurse, dressed in scrubs with a stethoscope dangling around her neck, gave an original monologue about a moment that forever changed her outlook of being “just” a nurse. That moment was a blissful reminder of why she became a nurse – a life saver. You can watch nurse Kelley’s presentation HERE.
Perhaps Kelley was so caught up in the X’s and O’s of nursing that she failed to realize what she was truly providing her patient, “Joe.” Little did she know that holding his hand, talking and laughing with him, and connecting on other levels was just what he needed at that moment. In his time of need, Kelley cared about him as a person, not a room number or diagnosis. And because of this, she changed his life.
Why do nurses choose the profession? According to Nancy Brook, RN, MSN, CFNP, in “Why I Love Being a Nurse” (Carson-Newman University April 23, 2021), “I became a nurse so that I could have an impact on the lives of others and have a career that felt very meaningful. I believe that at the end of the day, no matter how challenging, I have impacted someone’s life for the better.”
In today’s world of uncertainty, it’s no wonder that this strong desire to help others has been extinguished by COVID, double-shift exhaustion, high turnover, stressful environments, lack of resources and difficult patients. It’s no surprise that nurses feel undervalued.
But where there was once a flame that’s all been extinguished, a spark might be all that is needed to reignite the fire that led these professionals to choose nursing in the first place.
Perhaps nurses today need a patient like Joe to be that spark and remind them of their calling, their purpose. Although Kelley couldn’t help Joe with certain parts of his care, she was physically and emotionally present for him. Joe didn’t need “just” a nurse during his hospital stay, he needed the care and compassion that was uniquely Kelley’s.
There are many qualities that describe a nurse: empathy, kindness, and caring are just a few. These professionals are at the bedside in some of the most defining moments of a patient’s life — from birth to death — making split-second decisions with skill, experience and care.
That person on your clinical care team that is “just” a nurse might be who you need in the middle of the night during your next hospital stay or to talk to when you’re worrying about a recent diagnosis or pending test results. Will “just” a nurse change your life, or will you be the spark that reignites his or her passion?
So did Joe need “just” a nurse during his hospital stay and especially that night when he had the night terrors from his disease, or did he need nurse Kelley and her unique delivery of care?
Do you need “just” a marketing agency, or do you need a team of top-notch strategic, creative thinking professionals who really listen to you and give you personal, one-on-one attention? At EG Integrated the team members you meet on Day 1 are the same people who will be with you every step of the way, giving you the expert tools to help you recruit the right people with the right message so your team can get back to what they were called to do.