Nursing

What does a nurse actually do?

I know there are all kinds of nursing, but a large portion of nurses are employed in hospitals.  I really love my job most of the time, but it is also a job that you just can't spend too much time thinking about or you just might quit.

Some of us "older" nurses have been talking about the fact that nursing schools don't seem to be preparing younger nurses properly (or else the students just aren't getting it).  Nursing is a profession, and nursing schools seem to be really trying to get their younglings to understand the professionalism of nursing.  The reality is, however, that we do a lot of things that do not seem to be of what would commonly be viewed as "of a professional nature".  A lot of the younger nurses do not seem to be prepared for the reality of nursing in an acute care setting.

So I laughed and laughed today when, on facebook, one of my coworkers summed nursing up so nicely:   "We're just over utilized. We're caught between elevating our profession and living the reality that is butt wiping and booger viewing"

Well said.