Editor's Note
For
Goodness' Sake
Sharing
a common goal can help unify the nursing profession
Beth Ulrich, Ed.D.,
RN, South Central Editor
April
2, 2001
I had
the privilege of receiving a wonderful letter a couple of
weeks ago from a nurse who is 80 years old. Her mother was
a nurse. Her sister is a nurse. Her granddaughter is a nurse.
Connie
Newman trained at Bellevue and served during World War II
in India and Okinawa in the Army Nurse Corps. She settled
in Garland, Texas, after the war, and worked there as a
school nurse for 25 years. She says it’s been 20 years since
she retired, but that nursing still is in her blood. She
ended her letter with "how proud I have been to be
a good nurse."
To be
a good nurse is certainly a worthy goal for each of us.
It is a goal that you can begin to strive for the day you
graduate and can remain constant throughout your career.
It is an admirable goal for nurses with associate degrees,
diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and doctorates.
Nurses of all colors and sizes can aim for the goal of being
a good nurse.
Being
a good nurse is equally as important on the day shift, the
night shift, the evening shift, and on weekends as well
as weekdays. A good nurse can help patients birth babies,
live through major traumas, rehabilitate physically and
mentally and die with dignity. Good nurses are needed for
the exciting, television moment kinds of patient care as
well as for the tasks that may go unnoticed by many.
Being
good nurses is a goal around which we can unite ourselves
and our profession. And unite we must.
The
good news is that this nursing shortage has everyone’s attention.
The bad news is that this nursing shortage has everyone’s
attention.
It’s
good news because we can access previously unavailable resources
to help solve the problems. It’s bad news because a shotgun-approach
mentality is developing as thousands of people and groups
think they each have the magic answer that will fix nursing
(regardless of whether they are nurses or have health care
experience).
Well-meaning
though they may be, these efforts are creating a scattergram
rather than hitting a bull’s-eye.
The
disparate and frenzied approaches to solving the nursing
shortage, coupled with the craziness du jour of the health
care system, bring to mind the start of the poem "If"
in which Rudyard Kipling writes, "If you can keep your
head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it
on you. …"
The
way we keep our heads in nursing is by each and every one
of us aiming for Mrs. Newman’s goal to be a good nurse.
With the hearts, minds and commitment of 2.5 million good
nurses, we can solve any problem and outlast any craziness.
