The Future:
Over the past two years I try to find things to occupy my mind, so I don’t go crazy. If you ask my husband he thinks I’ve already lost my mind. I play computer games, read lots of books, watch way too many cooking and court shows. I also watch lots of the nurse videos that are out there and it makes me scared about future health care.
The last three years that I worked I saw nursing students come to our facility for their clinical training, which was nothing like when I did my clinicals. These students could only do vital signs, blood sugars and observe med pass. Some these students were in their last rotation and fixin to graduate. Mostly what the students did was sit the conference room and work on their homework. Now some students are doing online clinicals, which means they might not of never set foot in a hospital until they start caring for patients with their preceptor. I have unfortunately over the past couple of years have had the opportunity to be a patient on several occasions and you could definitely tell the nurses that had experience and those that didn’t. I had some awesome nurses that provided care to me and some that were not. I think some of the breakdown is they are not basics in clinicals and the number of “seasoned” nurses is getting less and less, as they retiring. One thing that stitcks out in my mind is, watching 2 nurses struggling to open a Ace wrap, searching for scissors to cut the plastic, using their teeth to tear the plastic. I asked them “can I show you something”, I took the ace wrap and twisted it and it popped right open. They were amazed and said they were going to show everyone how to do that. Its these little things that are time savers and just aren’t passed on anymore. I watched a whole 5 minute ” nurse hack” video on how to draw up insulin, it was just exactly the way I was taught during my clinicals.
My other fear is they are working on a nurse robot. Sure a robot could be programmed with the knowledge, but being a nurse is so much more than knowledge. Can a robot hold your hand when you are scared, can they show empathy to the patient and their family? How would you like to be told by a robot ( in their pre-programmed voice) that your loved one just passed away? I know I would not.
I fear for our would not just for healthcare but our values, morals, and the future for my grandkids. Some how we must stop the hate, negativity, and know its ok to have different opinions. Just because opinions differ does not mean hate for each other. We must give each other grace and understanding. You know the saying ” Jesus take the wheel”, we need this more than anything else right now. Everyone needs to go to their knees and pray for our country and each other.