Being a Nurse, or When Did You ‘Grok’ Nursing?

How does one “become” a nurse, as opposed to learning nursing skills? What is “being” a nurse as opposed to “doing” nursing?

On our Facebook page last week, we posted this query: “Professional identity is more than what you do—it’s a part of who you are. What does being a nurse mean to you?” One of the responses we received was, “Caring providers that own it, do right, work together and solve problems with innovative methods to improve care methods and optimize outcomes.

The respondent’s use of “own it” resonated with me: from the thesaurus, to own something means “to possess, preserve, maintain, hold, profess, declare, accept, have possession of…” To me, it hints at holding onto something valuable, being mindful of it and not losing sight of it.

This original post came about because I had recently attended a meeting at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, where a group of about 50 invitees were asked to brainstorm how nursing students develop a professional identity—How does one “become” a nurse, as opposed to learning nursing skills? What is “being” a nurse as opposed to “doing” nursing? Most of us say, when asked what we do, “I’m a nurse,” not “I do nursing.” And some of us […]

2018-10-05T10:42:29-04:00October 5th, 2018|Nursing, nursing career, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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Top Health Story Picks of AJN Contributing Editors for 2015

By Diane Szulecki, AJN associate editor

Kelley Johnson by Disney | ABC Television Group via Flickr Nurse and Miss America contestant Kelley Johnson by Disney | ABC Television Group via Flickr

With the end of the year steadily approaching, AJN asked its contributing editors, editorial board members, and staff to share what they consider to be the most significant health care and nursing-related headlines of 2015 so far. Now it’s readers’ turn. See the top picks below and feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts and additions to the list.

Clinical/Care Issues

  • The growing patient experience movement and the limitations of patient satisfaction measurements
  • The rise in chronic diseases due to lack of prevention efforts and unhealthy lifestyles
  • Substance abuse, including alcohol, prescription drugs, heroin
  • Vaccinations and issues regarding public trust of vaccines

Professional Issues

  • Nurses’ responses to critical comments made on The View and related ongoing discussion about the nursing profession’s image
  • Challenges and trends in nursing education: the shift toward advanced practice as a career path for many nurses and rapid growth in the number of DNP programs and applicants
  • Workplace stresses: staffing issues, moral distress, strain caused by an aging population with multiple comorbidities, plus an increase in the number of insured due to the Affordable Care Act

U.S Health Care and Health System Issues

2016-11-21T13:01:46-05:00November 19th, 2015|career, infectious diseases, Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|0 Comments
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A Found Poem For Nurses Week

Badruddeen, via Flickr Badruddeen, via Flickr

The poem below, originally published in our May 2005 issue, is by Veneta Masson, MA, RN. It’s a “found poem,” a form of poetry in which the poet assembles phrases selected from a source or sources. The lines here come “from actual posts to an Internet bulletin board,” but they could as easily be comments on AJN‘s Facebook page! The author is a nurse and writer living in Washington, DC (more about her work can be found here).—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor

Nurses Week—What Did You Get?
Hi, everyone! Just curious to see what you received for Nurses Week.

Denim shirts with the company logo

Swiss Army–type knives with fourteen blades

Carnations in dollar-shop vases

One wilted rose

Soap on a rope

I think I’m worth more than this

A live band at the Holiday Inn

A potato bar luncheon

If you weren’t there, you got nada

Nothing

Not a thing

A PA announcement thanking the nurses

We dug out our caps & wore them all day
our VP of Nursing came to the unit and stayed for an hour
we sat with her & shared our stories of why we went into nursing

We got pizza one day (if you were there) and ice cream one day (if you were there)

Rolos, Skittles and M&Ms—give me the tools to do […]

2016-11-21T13:02:32-05:00May 11th, 2015|career, Nursing, nursing perspective|2 Comments
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Guess Who’s Wearing Housekeeping Garb Now? Surprise! It’s Your Nurse

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology.

Catch-all: noun [usu. as modifier]

a term or category that includes a variety of different possibilities: ex. the stigmatizing catch-all term “schizophrenia”

American Hospital/by J. Paradisi American Hospital/by J. Paradisi

The first thought that came to mind after I heard that Vanderbilt University Medical Center had laid off its housekeeping staff and assigned cleaning patient rooms to nursing was this: Has anyone from the hospital’s administration ever looked inside the nursing staff’s refrigerators, microwaves, or sinks?

Universally, nurses’ staff lounge kitchens nearly rank biohazard status. In every unit a single nurse, but often it’s the unit secretary, martyrs herself (or himself) by emptying these refrigerators of forgotten food. She washes the moldy containers and places them on a nearby countertop, with this message scrawled in Sharpie:

CONTAINERS NOT TAKEN HOME BY WEDNESDAY WILL BE THROWN OUT! (Caps intended)

Another sign commonly posted above the staff lounge sink or microwave by this same nurse or unit secretary reads:

CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF! YOUR MOTHER DOESN’T LIVE HERE!

Fact: Nurses know a lot about infection control, but this does not automatically make us good housekeepers. Besides, nurses already have a job: keeping hospitalized patients safe while assessing their needs and administering their care.

While Vanderbilt’s decision to lay off its housekeeping staff and […]

2018-03-28T10:28:19-04:00October 28th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|15 Comments
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White Uniforms for Nurses? The ‘Nays’ Have It…

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

Nurses and patients aboard U.S.S. Relief, 1921/via Wikipedia

Well, if sheer numbers rule, then the image of nurses in white uniforms has gone the way of the nurse’s cap.

Earlier this week, on AJN’s Facebook page, I asked whether RNs should go back to white uniforms as a professional standard. Within a few hours there were 20 comments; by the next day there were about 200 comments (we had to delete the post with the first 100 or so, since we were unsure about the copyright status of the image used—very sorry if that included your comment!).

Clearly, nurses care about what they wear. Comments ranged from one word (“No,” with multiple exclamation points), to thoughtful reasoning around stains and keeping the uniforms clean, to advocating for an individual’s right to choice (about colors, that is).

There were only a few comments that were pro-white, with arguments that they were more professional than colors and “wild prints” and helped patients identify RNs from other staff more easily.

Here’s a sampling of comments (a few minor typos corrected):

Yes—but no hats.

No—but I do think it makes a lot of sense to be able to clearly identify who is an RN when you are a patient in a hospital. Clear identification is definitely a problem.

I support white uniforms. This is the required color at the Cleveland Clinic. Patients tend to appreciate the crisp, clean look of […]

2016-11-21T13:09:03-05:00October 26th, 2012|healthcare social media, nursing perspective|4 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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