Martha - Generate Knowledge for Nurses to Use

Martha -







My main focus has been on doing research. I had a master’s degree and was teaching beginning nurses, but I realized if I wished to stay teaching and doing research that I needed a Ph.D. Although my title is “Dr,” I am very proud of my RN designation.

I’ve always loved sciences. Nursing is mentioned as a caring profession, but it also is one that requires a great deal of background knowledge in scientific bases. What keeps people alive is not only that you care about them, but that you are capable of caring for their physiology.

When I worked bedside, I enjoyed my colleagues. I thought the unit I worked on was the best. My colleagues, though, used to tease me because I was forever trying to figure out how things work."You're going to have a lot of responsibility, but you're also going to have a lot of opportunities. Look for those oppportunities." Being terribly curious about how things interact, research is a good fit for me. If there’s anything I would have done differently, it’s that I would have gotten where I am a lot faster. Having a longer opportunity to be a scientist would have been better. Right now when we talk to some of our very bright, capable undergraduates, we should be saying to them, “Think about continuing on to get your Ph.D. right away.” We need people in for the long term, committed to their careers, generating knowledge for nurses to use. Too many of us get our masters and Ph.Ds late in our careers, when we’re already much older.

As a nurse, I am committed to advancing the knowledge of my field. I have done a lot of clinical work, and I realize there is so much we don’t know about how best to help people.

Whether you work in a hospital or a university, there’s going to be a power differential within the profession. It’s a result of the bureaucratic structure. There are people who have the responsibility for seeing that things happen, and to do that you need to have power. So if you’re a staff nurse, the supervisor has a responsibility for other things, so you might be asked to float to another unit, without an option of saying no. You can find that horribly stifling, or you can recognize it as a function of a complex organization trying to deliver care. I’ve chosen to be more focused on the latter.

With regards to the current state of our health care system, it feels like the opening line of a Charles Dickens novel. This is the best of times, and the worst of times. There are so many places to get very good care, but getting to the care is the hard part. I think we as nurses understate the difference we make. We should be able to say to patients, “You know, you’re in a hospital, and the fact that you’re going to get through the next 24 hours is because there’s going be nurses with you.” We need to speak up and be heard.

New nurses should know that their careers can be fun. I’d tell them, “You’re going to have a lot of responsibility, but you’re also going have a lot of opportunities throughout your career. Look for those opportunities.”

We experienced nurses need to greet them warmly and use the enthusiasm the newbies bring - appreciate the knowledge that they bring, help them out when necessary, and don’t scare them away with horror stories right off the bat.

Nurses who are maybe experiencing some burnout should support themselves by pivoting to a fresh place. It seems nurses wanting to change professions need something new and fresh. They don’t necessarily need to leave nursing. There are lots of other things to do and places to go. They’re bright. They’re capable. It really fills you with hope for the future of nursing just to know the kind of capable people that are out there.

Power Strategies: Intellect, Legacy, Achievement
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