The Guinness World Records refused to grant Jessica Anderson (a Barts Health nurse) the World Record as the fastest London Marathon runner in a nurse’s uniform this April, later and after much campaigning their accepted the record. The reason they initially gave to deny her the record was that she did not meet their criteria of “nurse’s uniform”, which -after reading the criteria- is only a nurse you would see in a period drama or a porn movie.
This is not unique in the perception of nursing and nurses; recently there has been some blogs about scrapping nursing degrees and “bringing back the old nursing”. It is an image that many people like to believe as what nursing is about. The Labour government reintroduced “matrons” as a job in the NHS to meet such perception, and this role has been thriving since.
On a Twitter post few days ago a nurse educator posted a question about what aspects of nursing are essential to the provision of excellent care; most answers focused on compassion, kindness, empathy, and respect. Which are very important aspects, but are these the most essential? This is not a new problem in nursing, people have always struggled to define nursing, Florence Nightingale wrote in 1859: “The elements of nursing are all but unknown.”
It seems to me that the perception of nursing among the general public and many of healthcare professionals has not changed over the past few decades. This perception does not see nursing as a profession, but rather a job that can be fulfilled by some vocational training. I am sure that most of those people will disagree with this statement, but repeatedly they express views that show they do not fully understand what is nursing now. In my short life as a nurse (nearly 25 years) I have witnessed huge changing in the healthcare service, the health needs of the society and the funding and training of healthcare professions. Along these changes a steady move towards more professionalization of nursing has been happening. However, one of the most issues that nursing has struggled with is how it defines itself as a profession, a definition that is immune to changes in politics and public demands, but rather driven by the needs of the patients as individuals and the purpose of the profession.
In early 2000 I attempted to conduct a qualitative study on the definition of nursing, but due to lack of funding and engaging in other projects I abounded that endeavour. However, I managed to collect over 100 responses from nursing students and the main themes in those responses were: science, art and empathy. This came from university students, were their passion about their chosen profession was not diluted by the workplace pressures, shortages, various demands and lack of resources.
I feel very strongly about balancing the art of caring with the science of nursing. The example I often use is that holding someone’s hand and giving them the compassionate care they want but failing to act on their sepsis metrics: is bad nursing. Acting on their sepsis metric but ignoring their autonomy and individualism is also bad nursing.
For most of the general public, nursing is attending the patient’s basic needs; until they are in a specialist clinic, a hospital bed, or suffering a long term illness, then they see more to nursing than the historical image.
On the professional side, the image projected about nurses is often subordinate to either the doctors or the senior managers, which contributes to the negative attitude towards nursing from other professions and management. The profession will not be accepted and viewed as a profession as long as nurses’ leadership is not strong because leadership is the key to professionalization.
Nursing for me is not a career, it is an identity, and it is part of who I am. Unlucky for me this identity is often belittled and disparaged, often unintentionally by people thinking they are showing appreciation and calling for change, a change to the past.
Ahmad Baker, RN, BSc, PGDip, PGCert (i never use and abbreviations after my name, only if I have to : RN, because I am proud of profession as a nurse)
Nursing to me is 1. A job that teaches me new things every day, has given yo the opportunity to study. 2. A job that allows me to interact with people from every ethnicity, age people I would not have the opportunity to meet within my own social group. 3. A job that has become part of me, we all play many roles in life, mother, father, wife etc but how many jobs become part of the person. 4. The opportunity to hold a persons hand and they trust you implicitly and you care for that person using science, research, compassion and a love for the job
ReplyDelete