Nursing is not for the weak of heart or stomach. It is a brutal, soul-sucking exercise in stress management — yours and everyone around you. All. The. Stress. This career robs you of your peace of mind and rewards you with a non-schedule schedule that deprives you of precious moments with those you love.
Nurses care for strangers instead of caring for themselves or their families. And every shift is a battle against death, management, doctors, and insurance companies. The nurse is the patient’s advocate — and let me tell you — no one loves you for that.
I’ve worked as a nurse for over twenty-six years. My career was a successful one in that I managed to retire with my nursing license intact. I can also comfort myself with the knowledge that I was not personally responsible for the deaths of any of my patients. I had only been to legal once in my long career and that was to offer information relating to a colleague. Thankfully, not my misstep.
However, there but for the grace of God — go I. Because there were a lot of near misses. In nursing school, they tell you it’s not a case of if you make a medication error, but when. We simply cannot take the human factor out of nursing. And we shouldn’t want to. Being completely human is what…
