I have been prowling around Cathy Glasson’s Facebook page and watching videos like this one:
as well as material at the Healthcare United Web site. I’m nearly propping my eyelids open with toothpicks to view this material while I knock back a cup of coffee before heading off to the hospital, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Where do these nurses get the time and energy? We all need to be doing this stuff. Nurses could be a formidable force if we banded together, but no one needs to look very far for the obstacles. I really doubt it’s a lack of caring. Nurses are just darn worn out.
I’m close to being an RN, BSN and need to be thinking about how to fulfill this part of my professional responsibility (advocating for change), but frankly it makes me feel overwhelmed. How can I do that when I am barely managing to drag both myself and my bad attitude to school every week? Yet I don’t want to be one of the grumblers who just complains and complains while letting others do the work for them. It’s something to think about. Meanwhile, I’m really grateful for the nurses who ARE out there working for change.
HOLY TITTY SQUEEZING COW. that is the biggest bunch of bull crap that this heifer has ever heard. Nurses need to mind their own business and leave politics at the door. We have enough to do in the hospital and avoid the basement like the plague, which those darn rats are major carriers of. You know, those rat/cat sized things down there in the creepy fluorescent lighting. Gah, where is my beer, I need another after that.
NNR,
I hope to provide you a postive note in that your life will become yours again after school.
The time sink of being an RN is much less than the time sink of being a nursing student. It’s actually easier in many ways. You don’t have post-conference at the end of a clinical day. You aren’t trying to study for a quiz, or write a paper, or read 400 pages by Friday.
There’s a lot to continue learning, but it takes place between set hours, and the additionally time you spend reading and familiarizing yourself with things outside that window is far reduced than while a student.
Cling to the image of you sleeping more often, breathe deeply, and forge through.