The Art of Nursing; Find Your Passion Again
One of the things that makes a huge difference for me in my career and life is the ability to bring creativity to my job and to my personal life. When that creativity is stiffed by people who say “just do this” and only allow me to do the mundane parts of my job, I get very frustrated and quite frankly find myself burning out again. My passion is helping nurses learn how to document well while taking credit for all of the loving, quality care they provide.
The Art of Nursing
Nursing is a science yes, and we have tons of best practices to evidence the care and care paths we need to follow and provide. But nursing is also an art. An art of caring with compassion and empathy. It’s about showing our patients how to care about themselves and how to modify their lifestyles to accommodate the rules required to control their illness or injury and improve their quality of life and outcomes. Many times that takes a lot of ingenuity, creativity and imagination.
As a home health nurse, I learned long ago the true meaning of necessity being the mother of invention. Improvising is an essential tool when you don’t have a central supply just down a few floors, and your office is many, many miles away. Nursing is the melding of creativity and art with the science of health care.
The art of nursing also involves teaching nurses how to take care of ourselves so that we can continue to provide the level of care our patients demand. There never has been, and probably never will be, anything easy about being a nurse. It takes tremendous physical strength and stamina as well emotional strength and stability to handle all of the things we as nurses may see during our shifts. From birth to death and everything in between; it’s all fair game in the daily routine of a nurse.
Find Your Passion Again
Elizabeth Scala wrote a wonderful book about Nursing From Within which discusses the art of nursing and how to take care of yourself and find renewed joy in your nursing career. The Art of Nursing 2.0 Navigating the Shifts in Healthcare is a course Scala designed to help demonstrate multiple ways to achieve the goal of renewing your love for your nursing career. Elizabeth employs the talents and skills of many top-notch nursing leaders to help provide insight. Employers, patients, politics and life in general can serve to drain us of our reserves and try to deny us any ounce of creativity in our daily routines.
Step back inside yourself to find the reason you wanted to be a nurse again and find that passion that kept you going through grueling hours of nursing school and sitting for the NCLEX. Learn to harness and utilize the tools to help reset your course if you are knocked off again.
