WHAT EVERY NURSE MUST KNOW
The Nursing profession is become so popular that anyone could have decided to become a nurse even at a slight train of thought. In fact, majority of today’s generation of Nurses have so many of them with a pre-conceived mindset of what Nursing is and have ultimately been made to believe that this is all a Nurse is called to be. To help you get a full grasp of this issue, I’ll like to explain in three points of what every Nurse MUST know.
1. Know your past
Modern Nursing is generally believed to have begun during the Crimean war when the legendary, Florence Nightingale and the unsung hero, Mary Seacole took a life risk to leave their comfort zone to a war zone to provide support for the wounded soldiers. This act of compassion and care at the Crimean war is obviously what has revolutionized to what the Nursing profession is today. It is clear that the heroes who laid the foundations of the profession started off with identifying a problem and procuring solution to it. They sacrificed their life, time and resources to meeting the need of the dying soldiers at the war and in the community as time goes on. The truth is that anyone who is choosing to become a Nurse or has become one must be convinced of the call to sacrifice.
Also, the whole idea of Nursing was birth when a need arose with no existing health practitioner being able to find solution to it. The doctors at that time ultimately could not entirely solve the myriads of health challenges the soldiers confronted them with and there comes in the Nurses’ role. It is very important that we all should understand that Nursing is a profession that has its place and is in no competition with any other profession. Why we do whatever we do in Nursing is not because of some other person in the health team but that we are well equipped to provide care for the weak client. Our minds should be focused on the patients and nothing else.
2. Know your purpose:
It is said that “when the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is prone”. The question to you is; why are you a Nurse? Answering that won’t be quite easy for so many because the motivation for their choice of the profession was completely without any thorough consideration. Not until you realize your purpose in life, taking a profession like Nursing could be a right step in the wrong direction. Maybe I ask, are you in the profession to make impact in the lives of others or to find a means of survival?
Nurses also need to understand the purpose of the profession and align their minds with it. Nursing practice at every level is ultimately aimed at meeting the health needs including the physical, mental, social and spiritual demands of the people in a nation. In fact, the profession is not just called to help the sick but also those who are well. Promoting health and preventing illness, that just describes what a Nurse does. This means that a Nurse is not just meant to be limited to the four walls of the hospital. As a matter of fact, nursing care is expected to be rendered at every place human being can be found.
3. Know your prospect
This is simply a call to understanding that the Nurses’ calling is without limits and if you are yet in doubt, you need to call back your mind to what a Nurse is called to do. If a Nurse is called to care everywhere and anytime, it does mean that you have a great prospect in the nursing profession. There are some who after studying Nursing decided to go for another degree in a course they thought is superior to Nursing. It is only because they do not understand fully the prospects that are in this profession. Dear reader, there is more to Nursing than we have in place now. Interestingly, an emerging profession like Nursing is where you can make history. The Nursing platform affords you great opportunity to reach to different category of people and make impact in their lives..
In conclusion, I will like to quote the Nurse who founded the Visiting Nurse service in New York and also had many other achievements.
“… a realization that the call to the nurse is not only for the bedside care of the sick, but to help in seeking out the deep lying basic causes of illness and misery, that in the future there may be less sickness to nurse and to cure.” – LILIAN WALD (1867 – 1940)
This is the mindset every existing and intending Nurse needs to possess.
Thank you for reading!
The Ideal Nurses 