“It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no such thing medicine is the surgery of functions, as surgery proper is that of limbs and organs. Neither can do anything but remove obstructions; neither can cure; nature alone cures. Surgery removes the bullet out of the limb, which is an obstruction to cure, but nature heals the wound. So it is with medicine; the function of an organ becomes obstructed; medicine so far as we know, assists nature to remove the obstruction, but does nothing more. And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.” (Nightingale Uknown)
When I was looking for quotes to put in my paper I honestly just googled “nursing quotes” but when I found this quote;I found something that I had myself have thought of before but wasn’t sure exactly how to put into words. My perception has changed not only from being in nursing school but from working in the ER, a nursing home and from the experience I have gotten at clinical rotations. The human body is an amazing machine, with an amazing pump that if taken care of can last for 100 plus years. In my experience I have taken care of patients who are on hospice who don’t eat, drink little if any water but their body refuses to give up, the heart won’t stop beating for months sometimes, and I have also experienced seeing someone in their prime die from trauma, or infectious disease that wasn’t caught in time. These experiences have taught me so much and I am very grateful for what I have experienced already even if not yet a nurse; have also learned that the body is a very delicate machine, that needs to be maintained and taken care of for it to run efficiently. Machines do have flaws and sometimes things do malfunction, and that’s where nurses and doctors intervene and support while the body heals its self, and that’s what Florence Nightingale refers to in her quote. We can help and support and find ways for the body to rest while it heals, but medicine does not actually heal, the body heals itself. Even though there are doctors and nurses who feel they are God or play God, even though doctors and nurses do play a huge role in the healing of a patient and intervene when things aren’t going the right way, ultimately the human body has the last say, is it going to fight or is it Simply going to give up. In seeing this and understanding this my perception of nursing has definitely changed throughout nursing school.
My perception of nursing has evolved as I have experienced many different types of different nursing specialties, it has made me realize what kind of nurse I want to be and what kind of nurse I never want to become. I remember thinking when I first started working at the nursing home how easy the nurses had it, all they had to do was pass medications and boss the CNAS around. I couldn’t wait to be on that other side of things; now that I am getting closer I realize it’s not as easy and as cushy as I once thought. Being a nurse is hard work and the hours aren’t the best, but it is rewarding. T have seen patients go home after being admitted very ill and with a bad prognosis, that feeling you get when you know you were part of a team that helped in getting the patient back to their normal life is such an amazing feeling something that makes it all worth it. T have a new sense of appreciation for all those nurses who came before us, who had to make their own NS or count drops when giving medications. Not saying that nurses now have it really easy because it is still very hard work to be a nurse, but with all the technology we have it does make it easier and safer for the patient that there is so many systems in place and checks that makes it harder to make a mediation error that could severely impair or worse kill your patient. Nurses have come a long way, and have paved the way for where we are at now, respected by many and respected for their knowledge. I also now understand why nurses that I have had encounter with in the past did the things they did. I remember when my grandpa was in the hospital, not knowing what the nurses had to do and all the work and charting they had to do.
As a patient or family of a patient it seemed that another patient was getting more attention or that all they did was sit at a computer and do nothing. Well now being on the other side of things I understand that sometimes the nurse is another patient’s room all the time because the other patient might always be on their call light or the other patient has interventions ordered that are very time consuming. As for the nurse always being on the computer, well yes with all the charting that has to be done how is it possible not to be on the computer all the time. I have had the experience now of having a relative in the hospital while in nursing school and understanding what goes on “behind the scenes” and am the one who is the one defending the nurses or finding ways to help the nurse when she comes in to the room to make it easier for her or spend a little bit more time with my relative answering their questions. I love what I do and excited to be a nurse, if I ever feel I am burnt out from being a nurse and the quality of care declines because of it I will take a break to make sure that is what I want, because nurses have a reputation and it shouldn’t take one bad seed to ruin all the work that all nurses before and after me have gone through. To conclude my perception of nursing over the two years has only made me want to be a better nurse to practice safe nursing and to be that nurse that a student someday can look up to and say I want to be a nurse like him.
References
Goodreads Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/63031.Florence_Nightingale
