Rant..
It bugs me when people say that they will apply to nursing school if they cannot get into med/pa school, as if nursing is a “downfall”. As if they see nursing as “well, since I couldn’t get into med school, I’m just going to be a nurse”.
being a nurse is not a profession where it’s chosen because of a person’s downfall in not being accepted to med school. To be a nurse takes skills and hard work, it’s not a joke. But from what I hear from people, this is what people think of nursing: clean patient’s up, take vital signs, pass out meds and that’s it.
NO. that is not what nurses do, at all!
Nurses do so much more than that. yes, we take care of patient’s, take their vital signs and pass out medications. You have to know what their vital signs mean in relation to their health condition, and why you’re passing out a certain medication and not simply doing it because “the doctor said so”. you have to understand the reasoning behind it and critically think. In addition, nurses create care plans, collaborate with the healthcare team such as physicians/PT’s/OT’s, and we are in charge of the patient for our entire 12 hour shift whereas physicians come in for like an hour or less and move on to the next pt.
We have 12 hours to be with the patient. get to know them personally, see where they’re coming from. is this their first time ever in the hospital? how scared are they? a patient’s emotional/stress toll can affect the overall healing process of the pt.
ex: pt is in pain so the nurse goes in to assess the pt. pt states pain level is about an 8 and describes the pain. nurse goes to med room to get appropriate med depending on the severity of the pain. go back to pt’s room, follow medication rights and administer it. 30 mins later reassess pt’s pain level and see if it went down. if it didn’t, then oh well i did everything? NO. getting to know the patient personally and seeing where they’re coming from is important. possibly their pain is not alleviating b/c she is stressed or scared of being in the hospital. by talking to the patient and establishing a trusting relationship can help the pt feel better. not only that but it can also decrease the pain in addition with the pain medication: killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
so, do doctor’s do this? maybe, if they want to, if they have the time to sit with the pt and talk for like 15 mins. during my nursing rotations ive noticed that 90% of the physicians come in, say what they need to, ask if pt has any questions and just leave to attend to their 20 other pts. in fact, there was a time where right after the dr left my patient told me “that was fast”. even the pt’s noticed this. nurses may not have 20 other pts to go to, but have up to 4 other pts to take care of. adding 5-10min extra to spend time with the patient in our “to do list for the day” is all it takes. spending time with the pt and just being a compassionate person can go a long way when establishing a relationship with a patient. this is what i have learned throughout my rotations. yes, we do all the “typical” jobs of a nurse. but forming a trusting relationship is not an easy task: every person has a diff personality so the nurse may have to weave around a bit before landing at the pt to finally have the pt open up.
overall what im saying is being a nurse is not a joke, or the “easy” way out of being rejected from med school.
if you really think of nursing like that, then when you talk to me just lie. lie and make up some bs that makes nursing sound amazing. i’d rather you fabricate some stuff up than tell me the truth.
sorry this is long or that it doesn’t make sense, but i’ve been hearing this a lot lately and i just had to rant somewhere.
