empathy Archives - Page 2 of 2

The Dance of Empathy

By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN. An infusion practice manager currently based overseas, Peggy has written for this blog a number of times in the past.

: by Augustin Ruiz, via Flickr

Although it’s only late October, this time of year finds me pondering holidays past, which were often spent working at a hospital. As a younger nurse, I worked in a neuro-trauma-rehab unit at a large children’s hospital. We had a strong primary nursing model and often cared for the same patients throughout their stay, which could last days, weeks, or months. Memories of patients from that unit and others occasionally come back to mind at this time of year, often spurred by holidays.

One of my first assignments was a beautiful youngster who had suffered a brain injury. It was a difficult case and the family spent many hours on our unit, helping me provide basic care and praying for a recovery. But after more than three months, the child’s strong and previously healthy body stopped fighting and the child passed away, with family at the bedside.

Years later, after being away from this facility, I returned for a short stint as a per diem on the float team. I dropped in to work when and where needed, days or nights. Many of the same people I’d loved working with were still there, and […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:11:40-05:00October 25th, 2011|nursing perspective|4 Comments

When I began nursing school I was confident that I’d enjoy being a nurse because I already liked being a waitress. I imagine that you’re already groaning, but hear me out. I had traits that served me well when I put food and drinks on the table: I was smart and organized, I learned quickly, I was usually able to rescue disastrous situations, and I liked people and wanted to make them happy.

That last characteristic is a secret that most of us nurses keep to ourselves as we emphasize the more cerebral nursing traits—the critical thinking, the autonomy, the professional skills.

That’s the start of an essay called “Nurse, Where’s My Lunch?” by the accomplished nurse and writer Christine Contillo in the June issue of AJN. It’s about some of the human pleasures of being a nurse, the deep human encounters you remember many years later. Is there a temperament best suited for nursing? And how do you define competence? Is it all just a matter of mastering “cerebral” technical skills? Or is there more?