The essence of a nurse.

I have been in or around nursing since I was 15 years old. I commenced my nursing career as a summer volunteer working in a  large psychiatric hospital decorating the wards for Christmas in the 80′s. Nurses wore white uniforms and the wards were institutional in many ways with large group dining rooms, dormitory mixed sex bedrooms and huge hospital gardens where patients grew the vegetables used in the hospital meals. Nursing has been in my family circle, with my grandmother, aunts and cousins being in the profession and my mother who would have been a fabulous nurse working as an occupational therapy assistant for many years. Nursing was a profession to be proud of, we were celebrated as champions of the patient’s expereince. Nursing has transformed over the past 5o years from being “a safe profession” largely run by and with females with a focus on supporting Dr’s, to a graduate based profession scorned by the media, as we are charged with turning out uncaring automaton graduates labelled ” too posh to wash. “ We have new titles such as nurse consultant, practice nurse, nurse prescriber, and in the public’s eyes we challenge and compete with Dr’s. But what is the essence of a nurse we need to distill and hold onto within the media and hype about poor nursing care ? Most nurses can describe what good care looks like, we have the 6 C’s to guide us and remind us of the care, compassion, competency, courage, communication, commitment skills we are required to possess, but the essence of a great care giver, from nurse, support worker, doctor or midwife is how we make others feel. I would argue kindness is as valid a competency in the armoury of skills needed  for nurses in 2015. This is evidenced through themes in national complaints studies, staff attitude and communication being the top reasons prompting complaints,and the impact of how we make others feel when we deliver care or information is crucial to create a positive experience of healthcare. The essence of a nurse is a fragile element and being time short, overworked, under appreciated will  result in burnout, and lack of organisational support contributes to shortcuts in practice and ultimatley staff turnover. If nurses and doctors alongside other clinicians are to have the time to deliver the care patients feel is ” kind ” ensuring that they/we are cared for needs to be factored into organisational DNA. Strategically health care needs to improve, investing more in employee engagement and support services for all staff would be a good place to start… let us turn the tide of poor nursing practices into positive stories of patient care and celebrate what we bring as nurses to the patient expereince.