The Classic Question: What Kind of Nurse Do YOU Want to be?
This week has been really bittersweet for me, as I have been reflecting on the fact that we are finishing our education and entering a new chapter of our lives. I will miss the close friends and support system that we created for each other, the long nights of studying and becoming hysterically delirious as the hours go by and sleep deprivation increases, the stressing over care plans and exams…yes, I will actually miss these to some extent because their disappearance also represents the end of something good. But now we are each starting our own nursing journey independently, and there is also something incredibly special and exciting about that. As I am writing this final blog post, I’m thinking of what has impacted me the most this semester in regards to critical care, and I think that I have realized that now we each create our own nursing practice. Before, we were guided by academia and our faculty…but now we are new graduate nurses. I have seen some nurses treat patients and approach patients in a very rude and unprofessional manner in every semester of nursing school, and there will always be a few nurses like this. Critical care is a unique specialty that blends a high level of critical thinking and pathophysiology knowledge with a need for knowledge of public health and case management, and that is why I love the specialty. Patients in critical care and their family members are vulnerable, and need a higher level of emotional support in this time of crisis. So, there is an even greater need for nurses to be sensitive, communicative, and excellent healthcare providers for these families. So as new graduate nurses, each of us needs to make the choice. When someone asks me what kind of nurse I want to be, rather than replying what specialty I am interested in, in reality I want to say, “I am the kind of nurse who will give my patients excellent care regardless of what others may be saying or thinking…I am the kind of nurse who will not criticize patients behind their back…I am the kind of nurse who will hold your hand even if you don’t “deserve” it…I will work hard to gain more knowledge and skills to know how to care for you safely, and I am committed to your care, because I am that kind of nurse.” As student nurses, we are limited to some extent when we see nurses we work with treat patients with disrespect or provide suboptimal care. But now, we have the power to really make a difference and even change the culture of a unit that we work in. Critical care is what I want to do, but the above statements represent the kind of nurse I want to be. There is a difference. And that is what I look forward to as I begin my own nursing journey.
