Ekene "Kennie" - Come to Work Happy and Ready to Help

Ekene “Kennie” -







My mother was one of the first nurses in her village in Nigeria. She was a wonderful caregiver. Everybody in the village wanted to be at home with my mother. When you were sick, she was the one to whom people were sent. Just thinking about her made me want to take care of people, and that’s what really drove me to become a nurse myself.

Currently, I’m a nurse manager at a veteran’s hospital. I’ve also worked bedside, in nursing homes and in a trauma center. My job gives me a voice with doctors and administration in the decisions being made about patient’s lives. I can make sure that patients are well cared for, things are done correctly, and my staff are doing their best to help the patients.

When you love what you do, it will show. You don’t need to broadcast it. When you are very caring and you love nursing, your patients will speak for you. People will come to you and say, “Thank you.” Come to work happy and ready to help. Nursing is all about helping, and the person you’re helping today might be the one who will speak up for you tomorrow. Soon you will find that that your boss might call you and seek your input. You’ll be surprised, but it’ll be because of your reputation.

I always tell nurses to remember they are licensed. There have been times when nurses have been credited for avoiding major errors. Doctors work really hard, some of them work 48 hours at a time without sleep, they’re only human beings. They’re bound to make mistakes. Nurses are trained to pick up on those mistakes and are trained to know what is right.

One of my roles is that of mentor to nursing students. The best moments of my life – other than the births of my children – is when I attend their graduations. I’m usually the one who’s crying and saying, “Oh boy, she made it.”

I thrive when new nurses come up to me and actually question me. I like that better than people who go about without questioning anything – those are the people who scare me, because you cannot know everything. Some people get very aggravated by those who ask a lot of questions, but I say they are the people who want to do well. I tell my staff, “Please try to mentor this person to evolve into a very confident, caring, compassionate nurse.”

New nurses do get burned out. When I talk to them, I do what I call a reality check. I tell them what nursing is all about. That it’s not going be a cushy job. It’s not about sitting at the computer all the time. It’s not about meeting and marrying a doctor. It doesn’t work that way anymore. The reality is, people will need your attention from the time you start your shift until you leave.

People will suck everything you’ve got out of you. They will aggravate you. Some will love you more than you want be loved. Some will appreciate you, and some will not appreciate anything you do, even when you’ve tried your best. You have to be ready for that. Think about all of this, and then say to yourself, “Is this what I want to do for a living?” You’re ready to be a nurse if you answer yes to all those scenarios.

There will be times when you will doubt yourself. What am I doing? Why am I in this career? We’re doing more things that are not in our job descriptions, but we’re faced with an industry where a nurse is expected to do everything. That’s why people get burned out. But if you love and embrace this profession, you will do well.

People have to understand, you cannot pay a nurse enough for what they do. A lot of people say, “You guys make a lot of money,” but considering what nurses do, and what they sacrifice day after day, as soon as they step into that job arena, you cannot compensate them fully with the salary they make."The person you're helping todaymight e the one who will speak up for you tomorrow." I am a manager. I can mandate people to stay past their shift, and I have done that. The nurse who is a single mom, struggling on her own, whose babysitter is calling every five minutes, threatening her that she’s going to call social services if she doesn’t come and pick up her kids, I’ve asked that nurse to stay. She doesn’t have friends she can call on to help. She knows she needs this job, and here I am mandating her to work, because I don’t have any other choice. It hurts me, and my hands are tied, because I’ve exhausted pretty much every other option. Maybe I mandated the other person two days in a row, and now it’s her turn. I’ve gone into my office and cried, but I still have to do it, for the sake of safety, for the sake of the patients. You are focused on making sure the patient gets optimal care.

So don’t do it because of the money. Go into nursing because you have the heart, and you are compassionate and loving, and you want to do well. Don’t do it because your mom and dad told you to. Make sure it’s something you want to do, because they’re not going to be there to hold your hand each time. It’s not going to be their lives - it’s going to be yours.

My dream is to work for the United Nations someday. I currently have a small nonprofit organization called Caring Hearts International (www.caringheartsinternational.org). We’re in the process of trying to build a free medical clinic and women’s center in the village of Azaraegeblu, Nigeria. I do a lot of volunteer work, both here and in Nigeria. I’m very well known in Nigeria for the things that I do. I support a lot of hospitals there. I’ve been teaching HIV/AIDS prevention, so I take a lot of condoms every time I visit. The customs folks, they open my suitcase and say, “Oh, the condom lady’s here.” I’ve heard that so much that it doesn’t bother me anymore. Then of course they want some, which makes me feel good, and I also give them pamphlets about different things, such as how to watch their blood pressure. Those are the kinds of things that make me feel good. I’m not going to change the world, but on my own small scale, I’m doing the best I can.

Power Strategies: Excellence, Commitment, Love
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