What Nurses Do--And Why Talking About That Matters

Plus...hey, I'm back in the U.S. and it feels good to be home. Really.

Hi All,

Arthur and I returned from our grand Chilean and Spanish adventure at the start of June. I actually got choked up in the Philly airport (of all places) while waiting for our luggage to arrive, because I felt so happy to be back in the U.S. I love our great country and even though every day brings new bad news about what Trump and his minions are doing, every day I also feel the growing resistance to their malevolence and cruelty. That gives me hope.

I’m also still thinking and writing about health care and nursing, because while political thought and action are urgent right now, we all also have to keep living our lives in equally thoughtful ways. There’s that old adage about “Living well is the best revenge,” but living well is also an antidote to hopelessness and powerlessness, which I know a lot of people are struggling with right now.

I’ve long argued that one way to improve our health care is to better understand and recognize how important nurses are to patient well being. A starker way of saying that is to acknowledge that in hospitals, clinics, facilities and even homes around the country, there is no care without nurses. Strongly articulating what nurses do should help nursing get the respect it deserves; my thoughts along those lines inspired the column below. A reminder that the column begins here, but you’ll have to click on the link to read the whole thing. Please do leave a comment if you feel so inspired. I’m always interested!

I’ve also included a cartoon to make you laugh, but also make you think. The thought-provoking point about this cartoon is that the fundamentals of nursing go deep for nurses. We never stop, even when asleep, because we know our work is so important for the well-being of our patients. That’s also why our dysfunctional health care system is burning out way too many nurses, but the ideal of nursing is still worth celebrating, and if we can laugh along with it, too, all the better.

New column in Cancer Nursing Today—

What Nurses Do: We Create Care

In this column I grapple with an issue that might seem beside the point of clinical work but actually matters a lot: the question of how to best define nursing. I’m writing about this because the International Council of Nurses (ICN) recently issued a new definition of what a nurse is, and although the definition is thorough and not incorrect, it ultimately fails to communicate the essence of nurses’ work, in part because it’s wordy and overly long. Despite the—I’m sure—good intentions of everyone at the ICN who developed the new definition, it comes across as a missed opportunity to describe nursing in a way that anyone reading the definition would instantly understand and embrace. My chosen definition is just three words: Nurses create care.

I’ve written before about how to define nursing. I return to the topic now with a renewed sense of urgency based on how troubled nursing is. A new study on nurse.org reported on the “10 States Where Nurse Burnout Is Out of Control.” Something about the title shocked me—that burnout among nurses has reached such epidemic proportions that it registers as a statewide problem in one-fifth of the country.

Final thoughts

This newsletter is short because I’m in the middle of a research trip for the book I’m working on and still getting used to being back home. The next newsletter will share pictures and stories of our travels. We had a grand time away and I feel so lucky I got to live outside the country for so many months. My Spanish didn’t get quite as fluid as I hoped, but I’m going to keep studying the language because I really like it. My husband will get another sabbatical at some point, and travel beckons to Spanish-speaking countries, where a lot of good physics is getting done.

Hugs to all,

Theresa

Here I am at the No Kings protest, which I found inspiring.