From time to time, I am "invited" to take part in selection interviews for student nurses. At some point in the interview some one on the interview panel will ask THE question - which is, of course, "why do you want to be a nurse?" To which the interviewee inevitably gives THE response "Because I want to care for people". I struggle a bit with this answer I have to be honest - why is nursing still primarily associated with caring rather than say, a satisfying career, the opportunity to do health care research or a fulfilling academic challenge? If people are so keen to care why not become lollipop ladies/men. They also care, they have a cool uniform and they only work about fours hours a day!
These individuals clearly have a view of nursing that is predicated upon the concept of caring, even thought they often have only the vaguest notion of what that may mean. They come into nurses education keen to care, nurse educators invest a great deal of time and energy in encouraging caring but once such students make it into the stress filled world of clinical delivery...guess what is the first thing to be subsumed?
This is why, in the UK at least, we have things such as the North Staffs enquiry, continuous reports about poor care for older people and only last week the report that doctors are now having to prescribe water to patients in hospital in order to prevent them dehydrating. This is shameful. Its not what potential students mean when they say they want to care, it isn't what universities are teaching so what is going wrong?
My friend became a grandmother for the first time earlier this year and found her daughter in such an appalling state post delivery that she signed her out to take her home. Not a bad idea, mother and baby were perfectly healthy, if not being washed, fed or being relieved of an over flowing bed pan that had been used two or three times but not removed. On top of these indignities, the final words of the "caring professional" as this distraught first-time mother was helped from the ward by her family were "If your baby dies tonight - that won't be our problem".
That's a damning anecdote, but what it is worse is that every one who has fallen into the hands of organised health care, even briefly has a story that is similar or worse. My friend is a strong, assertive woman (wouldn't be my friend otherwise) but she didn't feel that it was worth her while to complain. If we as nurses and unaware that our caring attitudes are eroded by practice and our patients are not encouraged to be the custodians of our caring skills - then what hope is there for caring in health care?
These individuals clearly have a view of nursing that is predicated upon the concept of caring, even thought they often have only the vaguest notion of what that may mean. They come into nurses education keen to care, nurse educators invest a great deal of time and energy in encouraging caring but once such students make it into the stress filled world of clinical delivery...guess what is the first thing to be subsumed?
This is why, in the UK at least, we have things such as the North Staffs enquiry, continuous reports about poor care for older people and only last week the report that doctors are now having to prescribe water to patients in hospital in order to prevent them dehydrating. This is shameful. Its not what potential students mean when they say they want to care, it isn't what universities are teaching so what is going wrong?
My friend became a grandmother for the first time earlier this year and found her daughter in such an appalling state post delivery that she signed her out to take her home. Not a bad idea, mother and baby were perfectly healthy, if not being washed, fed or being relieved of an over flowing bed pan that had been used two or three times but not removed. On top of these indignities, the final words of the "caring professional" as this distraught first-time mother was helped from the ward by her family were "If your baby dies tonight - that won't be our problem".
That's a damning anecdote, but what it is worse is that every one who has fallen into the hands of organised health care, even briefly has a story that is similar or worse. My friend is a strong, assertive woman (wouldn't be my friend otherwise) but she didn't feel that it was worth her while to complain. If we as nurses and unaware that our caring attitudes are eroded by practice and our patients are not encouraged to be the custodians of our caring skills - then what hope is there for caring in health care?
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