Rosalind - A New Wrinkle in Nursing

Rosalind -







I told my counselor in high school, “I want to be a nurse.” She said, “Oh, you’re much too smart to be a nurse. You should be a teacher.” At the time I thought, “So do we want stupid nurses?” This made no sense to me. Teacher’s mistakes cause bad grades, nurse’s mistakes can cause people to die.

I was not deterred. I was accepted into both a university nursing program and a three-year nursing school. I chose the nursing school because that was what I always wanted to do. I had read books about dorm life and tunnels at the nursing schools, and I wanted to experience those things.

My education consisted of two days of class work and three days on a hospital floor every week, beginning in the second semester. During my senior year I was able to work as a charge nurse on night shift, and I worked for pay on the weekends and in the summer. So when I got out of school, the patient care experience I had during nursing school allowed me to go immediately to work as a charge nurse.

I’ve felt divinely guided to be a nurse. Nursing is what I’m intended to do. I know this because there were two times when I was going to drop out of school because I didn’t have money to pay for it. I ended up getting scholarships that I didn’t even apply for. In one instance, someone else applied for a scholarship for me. Another time, a lady who had died six months before I ran out of funds had set up a loan fund for student nurses who were in financial need. I was able to take advantage of those funds at just the right time.

I feel I’m gifted as a nurse because there are times when I walk into a patient’s room and I see things that aren’t physically there. Sometimes I see the hurt that’s underneath the pain. Sometimes I see things before anyone else does. I’m able to deal with difficult patients when everyone else throws up their hands and says, “I’m not dealing with them any more.”"You can't get rid of the wrinkles, but you can give fresh wrinkles." My gift for nursing allows me to critically think with very little information. I have a medical intuition. I don’t think it’s something that can be taught. One day I had a patient who was going down quickly. I called the doctor, but I was a float and the doctor didn’t know to trust my judgment. I was finally able to get a surgeon in and the patient’s life was saved. He had a leaking aneurysm – it didn’t rupture all at once, but if it had continued the way it was going, he would have died. One of the nurses asked, “What did you see?” I told her I didn’t exactly know. There was a subtle change in his color. There was a subtle change in his blood pressure. I had a strong feeling there was something very wrong. Good nurses intuitively critically think.

I have been a bedside nurse for 37 years, and I’ve always felt this is where God wants me to be. I tried being an assistant nurse manager and I worked for three years with the information technology unit developing an online documentation system. But my passion is bedside nursing so I returned to my purpose.

Nursing is difficult some days. It’s hard for me to watch patients refuse to take care of themselves and return again and again with the same problem. It’s also hard when someone is suffering and I can’t fix their pain. Whether it’s the patient or their family, there are times I can’t take the hurt away. I can only make them as comfortable as possible. Many times I sit with families and cry because there’s nothing else to do to comfort them. Nurse educators tell us we have to detach ourselves; we can’t be emotionally involved. I say they are wrong. I can attach long enough to care and provide comfort, and I don’t let it interfere with my ability to help the next person. Maybe crying with them is the best I can do.

There are nurses who talk about burnout, and you would think a person with 37 years in nursing might experience burnout. But it’s never happened to me. I think it’s because I don’t provide nursing care with my own strength. I do it by the strength of God. When I go to work in the morning, I pray, “God, use me today to be Your hands and Your feet and Your mouth to serve those people that I am privileged to serve today.”

Sure, there are days when I’m frustrated by a patient who is non-compliant or a family member who has been unreasonable. When I feel frustration, I go home and vent to my husband. He used to be a paramedic, so he understands what I’m talking about. He has learned not to try to solve the problem; just to listen to me. I vent, then I go back to God and say, “God, You care about these people more than I do. Give me Your love for them because I have to go back and see them tomorrow and I don’t have any love left.” And somehow, He gives me that love and I’m able to care for those people the next day. Most days when I go home, I feel like I’ve had an impact on somebody. It may be another nurse that I’ve inspired to care for herself by encouraging her to take her lunch break. Or it may be a patient or a visitor that I touched in some way.

I don’t get to mentor young nurses much because I float to different areas of the hospital but if I did I wound congratulate them on their graduation and in the same breath remind them they don’t know everything, and they never will. I’d tell them to be humble, be willing to ask questions when they don’t know what to do. I’ve been a nurse a very long time, and I still ask a lot of questions because there’s always something new I don’t fully understand.

I would also advise them to be ready to dive in and do something they’ve never done. Be the first to say, “Hey, I’ll help. I’ll do it.” Because that is the only way you’re really going to learn.

And finally, I would tell them not to take to heart the criticism that they might receive. Don’t take criticism to heart, but do take your job to heart. I might also tell them to look at their patients as someone that God has put in their path today to help in some way, and the help may be nothing more than giving them fresh wrinkles or a cup of cold water. You can’t get rid of the wrinkles, but you can give fresh wrinkles.

Fresh wrinkles can also get the patient to laugh. I will go into a patient’s room and say, “I want to get you up, because it’s good for you, and while you’re up I’ll change your bed and give you fresh wrinkles.” The wrinkles are the wrinkles in their bed – not their bodies! When the patient laughs, especially after surgery, they breathe deeper. The laughter releases endorphins, which promotes healing. Healing, whether emotionally or physically, is what I feel I’m called to do.

Power Strategies: Faith, Intuition, Humor
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