Lets say welcome to spring. Hopefully it will be great with lots of blessings for everyone. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the rain showers, the beauty of all new flowers, trees that blossom and then leaf out. On the farm it was time for all the baby animals to be born. A time of the year where certainly God’s work can be seen.
Its been a hard adjustment to not have to get up and go to work everyday. I have worked full time since the age of 16, so I try to fill my days with things, reading, TV, (probably too much), computer games, and such. One of the things I seem to watch a lot of the nurse videos that are out. Some are very good, others are meant to funny, some are very negative. I can’t help but feel that some of these videos are leading to some the problems with nurses and nursing careers. I can not stand the ones that show how the differences between the shifts. I know day shift is busier than night shifts but when they portray night shift sleeping in beds or recliners with pillows and blankets is so inaccurate. I worked night for 14 years straight and then picked up many night shifts over the years. Never once did I sleep in a bed, recliner or any where else. If there was a blanket it was over my legs for the few minutes I was charting because TV he place was so cold at night. I also never saw anyone else sleep like these videos portray. No wonder people say only the lazy nurses work night shift, so very untrue. Most nurses that work night shift do so because of outside reasons.
The other videos that I feel are damaging to nurses are the ones that show the nurse full of hate and using the f-word every other word. Nurses saying they hate their career, they hate their patients, the patients family, adminstration, other departments, and basically everything to do with nursing. If you hate it that bad then get a new job.
In this age of social media and these videos are available for everyone to see, how are nurses suppose to be respected or get new nurses to replace the ones that are retiring. What everyone need to see is the positive aspects of nursing. Is every day wonderful, not but the good days out weigh the bad. That is if you became a new for the right reason. I know every one is thinking “you are just old school”. Yes, I am but let me tell you it doesn’t mean I can’t be current and up to date with nursing. Even though I am no longer working I still am reading, learning, and keeping current on things.
They have always said nurses eat their young, I always tried to look at new nurses as thank God new people, lets make sure they get trained correctly and completely. I think the nurses making a lot of these videos are harming the nursing industry and people’s opinion of nurses. It also doesn’t help when patients and patient’s family think a hospital is hotel with room service and don’t value a nurses time or their expertise.
Somehow the public’s opinion needs to be changed toward nurses, adminstration can not base every thing on patient satisfaction surveys, and nurses need to support each other not tear each other down.