This week I would like to talk about Nurses.
I believe every family needs to have a nurse to help safely navigate through our health system. With their training they are able to help lay people understand medications and their uses and side effects, sort through the choices given by your health provider, and often nurses have the confidence to ask questions about your care.
Sometimes it may be unsettling when a nurse is on the other side of care and has to be a patient, I actually think nurses need to see what it is like to be a patient and at the mercy of the care givers.Makes for a more empathetic nurse. Since there are all kinds of nurses , it may be to your advantage to be prepared. Receiving health care can be the best experience or the scariest. I have been witness to both.
When my Father spent an extended period of time in both urban and rural hospitals ,we were lucky to be cared for by some of the most caring nurses. They meet his physical needs at a standard of care Canadians should be proud of. To the other extreme when our son spent time in a Regina hospital it was one of my most frightening times. A nurse who chooses not to care can be a huge liability. We actually refused care from one nurse.
Both times the nurses came from the same educational background and were receiving the same wage. So why the difference? Is it the job demands? The management style? The age of the nurse?
In the course of my career I have seen the ratio of nurse to patient change drastically. It seems the more nurses earn the higher the work load. Since there is a limited amount of tax dollars allocated to health care[40%] we need to carefully use the resources. Some how there has be be a balance between the costs of health care and the services provided.
Rural nurses have some special circumstances at their jobs. Whereas city nurses have the security of a doctor present in the hospital along the teams ready to start IV's, perform CPR, and other specialized treatments, rural nurse are often on their own. They have to be prepared for whatever comes through the door. Cardiac arrest, trauma from accidents, sick babies, geriatrics,etc. A nurse I worked with often said that rural nursing should be considered a speciality! Not too long ago rural nurses were expected to help deliver babies as well. This can be an overwhelming undertaking for young nurses.
So our community needs to appreciate the professionals who choose to live and work here. Promote our small facilities and the next time you are a patient in a city hospital and are discharged home remember we have qualified nurses in our facilities paid to provide health care at the same wage, trained at the same schools but qualified in a much broader sense.
Thank your nurse today and encourage someone in your family to take up the profession.
