Nurses: Come Out of the Woodwork

Although Nurses Week is long over, the public face of nursing still needs a regular shot in the arm so that the public knows what nurses actually do. As nurses, do we describe our work in a way that gets the point across? Does the public know that we're more than the media makes us out to be?

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

The Tapestry of Nurse Collaboration

Collaboration among nurses and other healthcare professionals is central to the delivery of patient care. According to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, collaborate is defined "to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor". This particular definition is perfect for our purposes where the work of nurses is concerned.

Non-Traditional Nursing Careers: Where There Is No Box

Ask just about anyone what a nurse does and where a nurse works, and the general response is, "Oh, she works in a hospital." Apropos of that statement, when I tell someone I'm a nurse, they generally say, "So, do you work at the hospital?" I have nothing against hospital nursing, but there's more to our profession than meets the eye, and many of us are waking up to the multiplicity of non-traditional opportunities just waiting to be grasped by the savvy nurse.

Nurses, the Best Selfie is Internal

At a time in history when "selfies" are dominant in the depiction of our lives (and the potential measurement of our worth), the most important selfie for a nurse to take is on the inside, not the outside.

Selfies are part of our 21st-century culture, and there's no denying their popularity. In essence, it's our way of presenting a self-portrait to the world just like Van Gogh or Rembrandt would, except we can  effortlessly make dozens per day that can potentially be seen by hundreds or thousands of people. 

We have the habit of posting photos of ourselves having dinner with friends, walking on the beach with our dog, or relaxing on the hammock with a book and a glass of wine. In terms of our personal development and how we see ourselves as nurses and human beings, what if we shifted to taking "selfies" of what's going on inside of us? Rather than focusing on the outward appearances of our lives and careers, what if we delved more deeply into our motivations, fears, and joys? What if that which made us tick -- rather than the brightness of our smile or our curated life -- became the measure of our lives as nurses, human beings, and citizens?

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash