In the nursing world, we are required to be perfect. Perfect in our medication administration, in our judgment, in our documentation, in our treatments. There is no room for flaw because flaw could mean law suit, loss of license, loss of job, or even death. We have all been warned about the long list of things that could get our license taken away and we have each had a moment of feeling overwhelmed with the seemingly endless ways we could quickly end our careers. Yet the list involves tasks that we do 100 times every shift. And so we keep on, working diligently, double checking everything we do, working as well oiled machines carrying out weighty tasks with each hour that passes throughout our shifts. We are required to be perfect. We are required to be robots.
And yet…
In the nursing world, we are required to be compassionate human beings. Kindness and empathy are attributes that define a good nurse. Getting involved in a patients care enough to advocate for them and truly care for them holistically means allowing your heart to be touched by joy, sadness, grief, anger, fear, and love. When you walk into a room, you do not walk in to a room full of inanimate objects but a room with a human being, a soul, a heart, feelings, dreams, goals, life…
How do you get involved in your patient’s life without becoming unhealthy in your own heart and soul? How do you stay at arms length and keep your perfected routine and rules in place when every person you take care of is so different? How as a nurse do you stay both a robot and a human?
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