The Nurse As Defiant Optimist

Let's face it, folks; there's a lot of negativity out there, whether it's inside of nursing and healthcare, or out in the big old scary world. From the backlash against Joy Behar and "The View" to the bad news on your television screen, there's apparently no end to the violence and vitriol. Having said that, are you prepared to be a nurse who lives his or her life as a defiant optimist?

There's plenty of negativity out there, nurses; are you sensitive to the noise, or do you sometimes find yourself adding to it? We nurses complain about"The View" and Joy Behar; we complain about our pay, our lack of bathroom breaks, the physical labor, the blood, sweat, and tears. There's no shortage of things for nurses to complain about, right?

Bring On The Positivity!

 

Yes, we can complain, and you'd imagine that we nurses have earned the right to do so. However, how much can we really keep it up? For all the negativity and anger about what Joy Behar said about Miss Colorado a few weeks back, there is now an upsurge in nurses showing the world their stethoscopes, speaking out about who they are and what they do, focusing on the positive of what it means to be a nurse and practice nursing as an art and a science.

When we nurses catch the attention of the public and the media, it's a great chance to seize on a teachable moment, and many nurses are doing just that, with positivity and optimism ruling the day.

Remain Optimistic

 

Yes, I agree that there are lots of reasons to be grumpy and negative right now. Wages seem stagnant, nurses still seem worked to the bone in many locales, and new grads are still struggling finding work in some regions of the country.

However, on the bright side, many nurses are realizing that there are innumerable entrepreneurial opportunities for savvy nurses willing to put some skin in the game, and some nurses are striking out on their own with the conviction that building their own world in which to live and work is much more amenable than slogging away in the ICU.

As I recently said in episode 29 of "The Nurse Keith Show," the world is your oyster, nurses. We can listen to the naysayers and complainers, or we can raise our voices, ask for what we want, educate others about what we do and who we are, and continue to elevate our nursing to higher and higher levels of recognition, professionalism, and forward movement deeper into the 21st century.

I, for one, choose to remain optimistic. I don't have time for negativity and complaint; I only have time for looking in the direction of my dreams, and working to manifest them here on this old earth of ours.

Please join me as a member of the Army of Optimistic 21st-Century Nurses, and we'll lead the way, even as others choose to get mired in the muck. And who knows? They may see us having so much fun that they extricate themselves from the mud, change their scrubs, and join us on our journey of defiant optimism!