Not Just a (soon to be) Nurse

"Why didn't you go to med school?"  "Did you think med school would be too hard?"  

"Why would you want to be just a nurse?"

I am sure if you talk with many nursing students who are currently in school, they have been asked the above questions more than once.  Not only did that happen to me, but in the beginning I always felt the need to explain that I could have cut it and would eventually be pursuing a masters in nursing.  As time went on, I began to realize the different hats nurses wear and really think about why I wanted to become a nurse.  The party line now describes the difference between doctors and nurses - medicine is treats the disease where nursing treats the human response to the disease.

Last Sunday, nursing students from across the state attended the Annual Maryland Association of Nursing Students Convention.  This year's theme ... Just a Nurse? No Such Thing because the truth of the matter is that nurses are more than just a nurse.  A few months ago an article written by Kateri Allard went viral and she so eloquently described why she was more than just a nurse and the need to change the perception not only within the field, but more importantly outside the field as well.  We were fortunate enough to have Kateri as our keynote speaker and I am sure it got most of the audience thinking about their profession in a different light; I know it sure made me reassess (hence this post).

MANS lettering written out in lanyards from Emilyy050

Kateri sums it up well:

I am a Nurse. I didn’t become a nurse because I couldn’t cut it in med school, or failed organic chemistry, but rather because I chose this. I work to maintain my patient’s dignity through intimate moments, difficult long term decisions, and heartbreaking situations. I share in the joy of newly born babies and miraculously cured diseases. I share in the heart break of a child taken too soon, a disease too powerful, a life changed forever. My patient is often an entire family. I assess and advocate. Sometimes I wipe bottoms, often I give meds, but that isn’t the extent of what I do. There are people above me, and people below. I work closely with both, without them, I could not do what I do well. I chose this profession and love almost every minute of it. I know I am not alone and I appreciate all of the nurses who work alongside me. Many of them have shaped me into the nurse I am. Someday I will shape others into the nurse they will be. This wasn’t my plan B, it was my plan A, and I would gladly choose it again.