Friends of Flo - "Just a Nurse"

Dr. Rebecca Porter PHD, RN and Dr. Andrew Whitters DNP, ARNP discuss the importance of nursing in the medical field and how often the nurse can be the patient's best advocate.

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

This episode of Friends of Flo is brought to you by NCLEX mastery. If you're a nursing student and you're about to take your NCLEX, you need to go to the app store right now and download NCLEX mastery.

Rebecca: 0:12

Welcome back to Friends of Flo this is Rebecca Porter

Andy: 0:15

and this is Andrew Whitters

Rebecca: 0:16

Good morning Andrew, how are you?

Andy: 0:18

I'm doing just fine thank you.

Rebecca: 0:20

Great. We're missing our friend Tess today.

Andy: 0:22

That's right, yeah, so shout out to Tess Judge-Ellis.

Rebecca: 0:27

So we have been watching a conversation unfold on Facebook and a couple of comments that caught our attention were words people were talking about being told that you were just in nursing school. How hard can this be or that you were just a nurse.

Andy: 0:49

Terrible phrase really. I mean don't you think, I mean it's a put down sort of phrase"just a nurse" it just lessens the value of of that person and I think the profession that just...

Rebecca: 1:02

So how do we respond when people say, oh I need to talk to somebody you're just a nurse.

Andy: 1:08

Right. Yeah. So I mean I've heard that in my profession. I've heard that phrase"well, you're just a nurse" and I usually mitigate that by you know trying to kill people with kindness and showing them what what we can do what I can do. And in that time I guess with what kind of information I can provide. Sadly it's been in my experience from other providers which is unfortunate because you think you're on a team and then when you're sort of broke down as a lesser member...

Rebecca: 1:51

it's really soul destroying. I think this is where we really need to have what we call that 30 second elevator speech about what is a nurse

Andy: 2:03

Right

Rebecca: 2:03

And why are you a nurse. And so we have to learn how to advocate for the profession of nursing. So when somebody says"oh, you're just a nurse" we need to be able to articulate what it is that you do in your job that makes a difference.

Andy: 2:24

Well if it was a 30 second thing I would say I'm the primary advocate for this patient right now. Simple as that.

Rebecca: 2:31

I am with your patient or with your family member. There is one of my colleagues in the hospital with your family member with your patient 24/7 365. We do complete assessments we keep very close track we know when subtle things are changing and when to call.

Andy: 2:57

There's so many things that a nurse does especially a bedside nurse like in an acute care center. I mean think about all of the labs you'll have to watch, communication with the family, communication with other nurses, communication with CNA's, management slash administration, and then prescriptive healthcare providers, you know telling them what the needs of the patient are painting a picture to make that prescriptive care provider understand what's needed at bedside. Sometimes it's directly asking hey can i have some Lasiks or some pain medication whatever it may be. There is the thought process is constant and you're constantly prioritizing every moment of the day with that patient.

Rebecca: 3:43

All the millions of micro decisions that nurses make. And were not even aware were making them. And I think of nurses who work in the community as public health nurses that they are advocates for what nursing is as well. So when you are anticipating, my best advice is to really think about what what is a nurse and it's more than just a nurse and be able to define for yourself what is a nurse and what do you do as a nurse. It makes a difference.

Andy: 4:24

I guess I would advise nursing students out there in particular. If you hear that phrase, have had the confidence to understand that you're going into an honorable profession.

Rebecca: 4:38

Oh man. And you look at the history of nursing it's very humbling.

Andy: 4:42

It is indeed.

Rebecca: 4:43

I love looking back on the original works of Florence Nightingale and of the nurse in Ireland in the 1600 and 1700's and be able to look back and just think, what they did was really striking for an innovative and creative...and here we are today.

Andy: 5:08

And how far we've come as a profession.

Rebecca: 5:11

So when you think about nursing education and when I was doing my undergraduate work in University of Calgary we used a family model of nursing but we had a really comprehensive four year undergraduate program and the professors in all of our courses would ask for a show of hands of all of the nursing students who were taking this genetics class for instance or organic chemistry or anthropology or religious studies. And so we nursing students we picked up our hands and our professors would say OK everybody this is your competition. These are the smartest people among you. I don't care if you're pre-med or prelaw or who you are. The nursing students are your primary competition.

Andy: 6:01

Wow

Rebecca: 6:01

That was so empowering. So when people say,"oh, it's just nursing school" I just think they don't really know what they're talking about.

Andy: 6:01

Well I think that's a phrase that the nursing profession has been used to hearing things like that I think because we had this history of being subjugated against. Whether it be our profession or whether it's you know it's a female dominated profession...

Rebecca: 6:01

Yeah that's just what I was just going to say that having men in a profession has had a really good, I don't want to say elevated it, but added to our credibility and for men in nursing it's really been a challenge to overcome the social stereotypes of who is a nurse.

Andy: 6:56

I think it's interesting being a male in the nursing profession that you know you go into the E.R. for instance and you see an EMS care provider typically male it's considered a brave profession that has yeah right the heroes sort of...

Rebecca: 7:21

Fire fighter

Andy: 7:21

Yeah, ambulance driver same kind of thing you have this idea or this stereotype that it's a male driven profession that has the framework of that sort of hero complex that's only reserved for you know the muscle bound male. And then they get into the E.R. you know and then who is that patient being passed off onto. It's a nurse, but somehow that label of being a nurse is construed as being this feminine profession when in fact....

Rebecca: 8:00

It's for everybody

Andy: 8:01

And there's so much to do within the nursing not just the profession but when you're taking care of a patient there's so much more to think about rather than just the acuity of delivering them to you know the E.R. or your thinking on so many different levels to take care of patient.

Rebecca: 8:27

Right, so it's not just nursing school we're integrating every course you take in nursing school and pre-nursing is really integrating and socializing you into becoming a nurse. One of the other things is I think it came up on Facebook where what I'm calling what are the barriers to becoming a nurse. I'm not talking about barriers getting into nursing school but when people are really just thinking about becoming a nurse I think people get caught up in, oh I have to look after all those bodily fluids and I'm gonna be cleaning up vomit and poop for the rest of my life. How did you react to that Andrew when you saw that posting?

Andy: 9:16

You know I thought it was interesting, but for me personally the blood the guts the excrement the mucus that you see, that never bothered me it was the medication errors the social constructs in which patients live.

Rebecca: 9:44

Yeah, the complexity...

Andy: 9:44

Those were the situations that tend to bother me that I wasn't necessarily prepared for and the example that I can give is when I first started my career I worked in the PIC and I was prepared for to see the inevitable death of a patient. I was prepared for that. But what I wasn't prepared for was handing a baby a patient of mine that was alive at the beginning of my shift and then handing that baby to a mourning mother. That was something that still etched in my brain and in my memories. And it was just me there as the primary nurse of this patient and it was an incredibly touching experience. But there's no book or a classroom didactic that can prepare you for that kind of experience. It was emotional and and even in the culture of the nursing you know the ICU that I was in, not a lot of compassion has given to the nurse going through that process.

Rebecca: 11:04

And that's how we get into things you know. As a student and indeed a practicing nurse experiencing compassion fatigue or compassion stress and leading to burnout and moral distress and things like that come up, but the barriers when you're thinking about do I really want to be a nurse I'm not sure is to think past, to talk to some nurses and ask them what gives most meaning to your work. And what do you most remember doing, the biggest differences that you made. And I think that that's one of the privileges of being a nurse is that we share the most incredibly intimate moments with people. And it is a gift that we've earned through going to nursing school. Yeah, you do work with blood and you do deal with excrement and mucus, but it doesn't define the relationship and that's what we're all about is the relationship with our patient and being able to be their best advocate and at times their voice to help them find meaning in what they're going through. Any one of us who have been a nurse for even a few months will be able to push stories that have very giving meaning to etched in their hearts and in their mind about knowing that you're following what you're called to do.

Andy: 12:53

Yeah. So to all the people out there who have heard the"just a nurse" phrase, I would say have confidence in yourself have confidence in your training and take heart that your career will lead you into wonderful experiences as a nurse.

Rebecca: 13:17

And my advice will be to carry yourself with pride and self-respect and self-care and to look after yourself as much as you look after your patients.

Andy: 13:28

Great message.

Rebecca: 13:29

It's not just nursing school. You're working really hard. And you might want to have a listen to preparing for exams and preparing for licensure exam on our earlier podcasts.

Andy: 13:43

Absolutely. To everyone out there in the Friends of Flo land keep innovating agitating and educating.

Rebecca: 13:51

And my words are to take care of yourself as you take care of others. Bye for now.

Andy: 13:58

Bye guys

Narrator: 13:58

Here at NCLEX Mastery we love nurses and especially nursing students, but we need your feedback about this podcast. If you have ideas on topics or questions you want us to answer, shoot us a message, leave a comment, go to our Facebook page and just tell us what you think because we want to help you in the most specific way that you need that help. Thank you so much.