“You don’t build a house without its foundation. You don’t build a hospital without its nurses.” -Anonymous
Nurses, you are superheroes! The increased amount of responsibility in the nursing profession has not gone unnoticed. With a grand shortage of help in hospitals, nurses are required to start practicing a larger scope of medicine. In turn, this requires a higher level of education (and more reoccurring, on-the-job training) to move forward in the field.
Nurses these days carry more responsibility; they’re tasked with jobs that doctors would normally be in charge of. Not only are you charting, administering medication and responding to every patient’s beckoned call, you’re now helping to diagnose and prescribe illness as well as being the doctor’s right hand. A shortage of staffing in hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices requires nurses to take on more patients, and make time to give each patient optimal care.
However, the responsibility doesn’t come without warrant, nurses have shown time and time again that they’re the superheroes of the hospital. They keep the lights on and the beds rolling.
Just like any job, an employee learns and takes on additional responsibilities from their boss. As a nurse learns and becomes more dependable, they are trusted to do more. ‘Learning by doing’ is commonplace in the nursing world. The widening of the scope of medicine in which nurses are allowed to practice has a lot to do with staffing shortages in hospitals, but also ease of use. Nurses are intelligent, capable and fast-paced individuals that prove that they will go above and beyond for their patients!
While it may seem like the world is coming at you at 100 miles-an-hour some days, know that you are not alone. Nurses everywhere are being asked to go above and beyond each day. Being a superhero nurse isn’t easy, but saving lives & taking names will always be worth it!
