TodaysRN

Get the facts! No Nursing Shortage, Just Burned-out Nurses.

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
~ William James

What constitutes a good Nurse?

Some coworkers say the nurse that manages her or his time wisely; others say the nurses that can BS patients around! Still others say a good nurse is the nurse that cares! The truth is that there is no right answer.

There is the nurse that makes a powerful impact on some patients, and typically that is the nurse that is able to sympathize with his or her patients. Unfortunately, we all are not able to sympathize with all of our patients, but can only be on the alert and attempt to do so. Recently, I was fortunate enough to visit Haiti two weeks after the earthquake, and was overwhelmed by the devastation. I knew that it was going to be impossible to really impact anybody there, but once I looked at things through a Haitian perspective everything changed.

There was this young lady that had been rescued from within the rubble, and had been brought to the hospital days later. As soon as the translator told me and the orthopedic doctor that her left arm had been under large rocks for a prolonged period of time, and that there was no deformity, no pin point sensation, only the inability to move and feel her arm, we suspected some kind of nerve damage. Indeed when the orthopedic Doctor went on to explain to the patient that the brachial plexus nerves had been damaged she quickly came to tears. She went on to cry and explain that she would be useless and unable to work, not even taking into consideration her multiple other injuries.

In my desperate and unsolicited desire to ease her sorrow, I told her that her recovery might need some time, hard work, and long-term commitment on her part.

I believe that if she and her family persistently and passively flexed and extended her upper extremity, maybe she would regain some movement and strength. I was then able to use the translator to explain to the family to assist with this and they agreed. The young lady looked at me right in the eye and said, “Thank you for helping me understand.” That moment still brings me to tears and makes me feel like a great nurse, because it really did not matter how much I knew but only how much I really cared!

Aaron R Gallegos

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