The Fireside

I recently read a book about immigrants to the US back in the 1930's. One couple had just had a baby in the hospital, and the man described how he took the time to speak with the nurses and smile with them. He treated them with respect, knowing that by getting to know them, and them him, that they would take good care of his baby.

Today's nurses are very highly skilled professionals, much more so than back then. Quite literally, we hold the lives of their patients in their hands. Nurse today know how the conduction system of the heart works, and we know how different medications effect that system. We know what Murphy's sign, Babinski's sign, and Homan's sign are and we know how to assess them. We know the Creb's cycle and it's implications for cellular metabolism. We know how to resuscitate a patient in cardiac arrest with sophisticated drugs and procedures (not just CPR) and bring him back to life. We also generally work 12- to 13-hour shifts and usually do not get to stop even for a lunch break because we are too busy trying to care for our patients' medical and personal needs.

Yet, family members of patients in the hospital, for the most part, do not treat nurses with respect, and indeed are generally quite rude and disrespectful toward nurses. Why is that?

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For the most part, patients are in their 60's and over, and are compliant with their care, and respectful to the staff. Their family members, however, in their 40's and 50's, are generally rude, demanding, and mean.

I think, this current middle-aged generation, with some exceptions, grew up to be completely self-absorbed and have a lack of respect for everyone. When they were growing up, they were taught that it truly is "all about them." "Self-esteem" was the rallying cry in the schools then, as it still is today. But this lack of empathy and respect is worse in nursing than in other vocations, and it is probably the number one reason why nurses are leaving the profession in droves, and why the severe shortage of nurses continues to get worse.

I will probably be following them soon, for the same reason.

Yet, the Scriptures tell us that each of our vocations is sacred.

Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. (I Cor. 7:17)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, (Col. 3:23)

That means that ALL vocations are sacred, from the "lowest" (Dr. Luther referred to milkmaids in this regard in his time) to the "highest".

Nurses are charged with total care of anywhere from 2 (in ICU) to more than 5 (in the ER or acute care) patients at any given time. This includes making sure their medications are given, that their lab works is drawn and any critical values addressed, their tests done as scheduled with appropriate pre-test work done, and their EKG's monitored for signs of serious changes which could signal life-threatening events. And this is generally done for a 12-13 hour period with few, if any, break periods. Not to mention the reams of charting on each patient that must be done to cover the hospital's liability.

Yet, the many families of patients expect the nurses to be all things to them, to kowtow to their every desire, to fix their every problem, and to do it immediately. In the hospital in which I currently work, patients can order from an extensive room service menu. Yet, it is the nurse who gets abused when he doesn't get a packet of sweet-and-low for his herbal tea. It is the nurse who gets abused when the doctor doesn't show up when the family expects him to and makes them wait for him. It is the nurse who gets abused pretty much for everything that happens to the patient, and it generally is for nothing over which the nurse has control.

When this current contract is done, I have decided that I am too. I am a professional with wide and varied skills. Yet I am not respected for those skills in hospital nursing.

Conversely, I have worked in occupational medicine, working for a construction company as a first responder for work accidents where I have been treated with tons of respect. I have worked as a ski patroller and a forestry worker where again, my skills are respected and appreciated.

My vocation, whether it's a construction worker, wilderness ranger, or RN, is sacred to God, to me, and it should be to those who benefit from my skills, knowledge and experience. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The fact that I have an RN license doesn't mean that I have to work in an environment, such as a hospital, where my vocation is not understood to be sacred, and respected as such. This current contract has convinced me that I am finished with hospital nursing.

The nursing shortage will get worse as nurses continue to be overworked, disrespected, and consequently often leave their shifts in tears because of the way they have been treated that day. If our society can learn the very simple idea of the sacredness of vocation, our world would be a much better place. Sadly, due to the sinful nature of humans and the widespread "it's all about me" attitudes (which is no more than an infantile selfishness which permits people to make harsh value judgments about others without any empathy for those they deem inferior to themselves), things will probably get much worse before they get better.

Next spring, you can look for me out in the mountains wearing a tan uniform, carrying a pulaski and a pry bar, working on trails, picking up trash from hunting camps, and just generally enjoying my sacred vocation once again. I'm looking forward to that immensely!