In forty years of nursing, I fought for respect and autonomy in my profession. I pursued a graduate degree and believed a higher level of education would not only enhance my clinical practice, but would also earn colleague status with doctors wherever I worked. For the most part, this has been true.
In the critical care setting, my specialty, adaptation to change, continuing education, and the ability to make sound clinical decisions has been instrumental in the practice of nursing. A four year degree has become the expected entry level education. Certification in this specialty and the pursuit of a higher degree is becoming more commonplace. Both are encouraged and economically supported by health care institutions. This sounds like nursing is advancing as a profession.
Enter the new ad campaign by a large health care conglomerate that praises the “servant” who cleans up messes and changes the sheets. The ads devalue the educational requirements, both basic and ongoing, the responsibilities assumed, and the commitment to best patient outcomes manifested by consummate professionals. The portrayal of health care providers as servants discomfited me.
As a nurse, I have been a witness to and caregiver in the most deadly epidemic in modern times. I have watched women infiltrate medicine and men infiltrate nursing. I have lived a history in which critical care grew from the MASH units on the front lines of war into the technology driven units in tertiary care facilities. I have watched drugs come and go, so-called best practices be replaced by better practices, and health care become a right. I recognize my profession is one of service. I know that without the patient I am nothing. Without the trust of someone who allows me into his or her life at a most vulnerable time, I cannot do what I am trained to do. But I am not a servant.
Conversely, when I come into the hospital, I want an educated professional familiar with the latest technology, the newest drugs, the best treatments, and the dedication of someone who is prepared for his job. I neither want, nor expect a servant.
I am a professional nurse. I empty trash, clean the floor, clean up excrement, and turnover a room. I have successfully resuscitated a patient before the doctor could arrive. I started an IV when a patient was bleeding to death as the doctor stood over me and told me I had to find a vein. I have made countless decisions in treatment plans, made critical notifications, participate in interdisciplinary collaboration to devise the best plan of care, wept with families, attended funerals, and shared the pain and joy of loss and recovery. I am and will always be in service to my patients. However I am not a servant.
Leave a Reply