Hi. When I wrote the book “The Nurse’s Story” every nurse I knew was willing to acknowledge “burnout.” We helped each other, talked to administration etc. but then we couldn’t walk off the floor if we had 30 patients! Since the healing model of medicine has been replaced by the business model, I can find very few references to “burnout,” which is now referred to as “compassion fatigue.” This troubles me because it puts the complete responsibility for burning out on the nurse rather than on her situation. I’m not saying she shouldn’t take responsibility but the system itself is also at fault. They have replaced us with less skilled workers to save money and they have forced us to the desks to document and be shills for the insurance companies and hospitals. Where is the compassion for a nurse, where is the support for a nurse, who has tried to live up to a deep calling to help? Who is teaching the difference between putting up boundaries, and putting up walls? And where is the new knowledge of healing incorporated that measures the healing intention, the listening ability, the being present etc. As soon as a nurse wants to be more within the system, she has to go back to school to get a degree. And with each degree she is taken farther away from the patients she wants to help. Anyway, that’s how I see it. And by the way, I got hundreds of letters from nurses in the trenches agreeing on the problems. But the solutions can’t come from those making up the rules on paper. Theory is too far away from the bedside. And I never heard one little kid who wanted to be a desk clerk rather than a doctor or a nurse. We turn on each other as every other oppressed group turns on another, and we learn to hide and talk medicalese and jargon to keep what little power we’ve gotten. But nurses are better than that. They do have a deep and abiding value set that understands that helping another is helping oneself. And that every one of us will need someone at their bedside someday. We should all try to be the nurse we’d want to have there. Let’s fight the system that disempowers us, not each other. Information is power, let’s share it with each other and with the patients. More nurses have stories to tell, and those stories are what the media should be hearing and spreading.
Carol Gino
Where do we write these stories?
I agree with you so much!! The hard part is putting all of the feelings, thoughts and knowledge into words. And I agree with the above question too. Where do you suggest we write? In a blog? Letters to the editor? And just how do we do this without repricussion? I am currently still working and need to for quite some time yet, but would love to find a way to put my experience into words. Suggestions?
The Beginning
I had been practicing nursing for about four years. It was obvious to me that God moved me into this job. I was amazed on more than one occasion at my ability to see trouble with patient’s hearts ahead of the event. It tended to frustrate the staff that I worked with.
This fact would find me at odds with them on more that one occasion. My personal feeling on this talent was this is KEWL. The first time I realized that I had the ability was something of a surprise.
A female patient about the age of 58 was admitted to my unit with complaint of shoulder and back pain. Patient was alert and oriented and resting quietly in bed. I went into the room to evaluate her and vital signs were within normal limits. Cardiac monitor showed a sinus rhythm without ectopy. Respirations were easy and even. I quickly completed my initial charting and was monitoring the EKG patients when I had this strange urge to look at each of my patients. I quickly laid eyes on each patient working back to the admission that I had just evaluated. Some people say that if you know the answer before you hear the question…. You are a Clairvoyant. There was one strange beat on the EKG monitor. It did not look like any beat I had ever seen before and I suddenly realized that she was fixing to die. I calmly leaned out of the room and called for my other staff member. When I saw her… I asked her to call the Cardiac Doctor and tell him to get here now and hang up the phone on him. She told me that he was out of town. I told her to call the MD on call for him and tell him Clifford said Get here now! At that very moment she shot off one of those weird irritable foci.
It seemed like a minute had passed and the Doctor shot into the unit. I told him I have no proof but this lady was fixing to die. He ordered a 12 lead EKG stat. Upon review of the EKG he said that she was evolving an anterior wall infarction. We started the streptostreptokinase protocol and over the next hour we held our breath hoping that we got on this problem early enough. Finally, the EKG showed the breakthrough rhythm. We dumped fluids until her B/P came back to normal and then adjusted fluids to KVO. At this point, she was totally unaware that she had been evolving through an MI.
Dr. N. got a message to get to the hospital as well, and was walking in just after we had completed the protocol. He reviewed the EKG and shook the other MD’s hand. He told him that this was one bad anterior wall infarct and that if he had not caught it when he did the patient would be dead by this time. The other MD shook his head and told Dr. N. that it was my save. You cannot know how good that felt as Dr. N. shook my hand and congratulated me on the save. He then went into the patient’s room and informed her of the heart attack. She said that she never felt any pain or anxiety.
The Lady lived for 16 more years. She asked me how she could possible thank me for saving her life. I smiled and said …Just keep living life. I have bragging rights as long as you live. This is what I was meant to do by God’s help and believe me when I say that He was there with me the day that we did the procedure.