Like most nurses, I am often asked “What brought you to nursing?” I think for many of us the answer is “another nurse.”
Most of us have experienced the aid and help of nurses in our lives, whether it was through experiences with life or death, sickness or health.
Now our profession needs a nurse.
Over the years, we have seen shortages and burnout, as well as an overabundance of nurses in other areas (for instance, right now with the economy or when many clinics switched to Medical Assistants).
We are at a point in nursing where our profession can develop into several directions. This crossroad leaves us with a major question:
“What do we want the future of nursing to look like?”
First and foremost, we need nurses to be accepted and spoken for. I know many nurses (especially graduate nurses) who are aching from a perceive lack of worth.
With more pressure from shorter hospital stays, increased knowledge and technology, and decreasing reimbursement from third-party payers; nurses are at a point in the profession where they can either make or break it.
We care for people from birth to grave, we listen to the problems of others when we are off the clock, and we complain amongst ourselves when things go less than ideal.
Who is going to nurse nursing?
In a profession where ingenuity fuels research and best practices, many nurses are finding ways to improve on the shared knowledge base we have.
Exciting and encouraging each other is important. As they say “attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?” If you see something wrong and you have a good way to fix it, say something!
Taking a proactive approach to the nursing profession’s problems is how things get fixed. Unfortunately complaints, when kept to oneself, do not accomplish anything. It’s time to change!
How do we become more proactive, and in doing so, improve our profession?
To join in the discussion, post here in the comment section or join the Nurse Circle on facebook, Linkedin, or the twitter hashtag #RNchat.
_______________
April is a newly minted RN who blogs regularly at nurseinwi.blogspot.com and can be followed @PsychNurseinWI on twitter.
Tags: Burnout, Careers, Development, Nursing
January 11, 2011 at 12:35 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Susan Eller. Susan Eller said: RT @NurseCircle: Discussion: How do we become more proactive, and in doing so, improve our profession? #RNchat http://fb.me/sCQxng0I [...]
January 11, 2011 at 1:01 pm
The biggest impediment to a change in nursing, is our reluctance to change itself. Even when a situation or job position is dysfunctional and not healthy for us, we cling to the familiar. We are comfortable in our burnout, or stress, because we have lived with it so long. We are fearful of making any change even though it may be exactly what we need. Nurses caring for each other is a huge missing aspect of nursing practice these days. And, it has the most potential for changing all of health care.