Nursing

WHERE DO YOU GO when your nursing heart needs recharging? You know what I mean—those times when you are afraid that you have nothing left to give. Or, perhaps, you are wondering why you ever became a nurse in the first place.

I ask these questions because our nursing hearts provide the strength we need to care for patients, their families, and our team members during difficult experiences. They connect us to another human being during what may be his or her most vulnerable moment. Our nursing hearts are as vital to our work as any competency, certification, or degree. In fact, I believe that without a functioning nursing heart, one can never be a truly great clinician.

Ask yourself these questions to see if your nursing heart is in working order:

• Does your heart break when you see an elderly man holding the hand of his wife of 50 years as she takes her last breath? My paternal grandparents had been married more than 70 years when my grandfather lay dying. Grandma lay down beside him and held him spoonlike with her own body. Her demonstration of love had a profound effect on my life. When we are allowed to glimpse such devotion while caring for our patients, we are being offered a gift to be cherished. I hope that our nursing hearts are always open to what our patients have to teach us.
• Does your heart leap when you watch a new mother greet her baby for the first time? A small hospital where I once worked rarely dealt with fetal demise. When one did occur, the mother was placed in a private room on the medical/surgical unit, away from other mothers and their babies. I vividly remember observing a young mother as she held her infant for the first and last time. Watching that grieving mother, I realized that we can never take the gift of life for granted. I hope that we continually look for opportunities to celebration life with our patients.
• Does your heart flinch when you hear another nurse say, "That's not my patient"? These careless words will undermine the teamwork on even the best nursing unit. I don't remember being taught in nursing school that we were to advocate only for those patients assigned to us. True patient advocacy requires that we confront our peers and promote professional practice in our various environments. I hope that our nursing hearts will always give us the courage to truly advocate for all patients.
• Does your heart nudge you to step forward when a coworker is being verbally attacked? Has it ever happened to you? The angry family member, physician, or coworker hurls verbal abuse at you while everyone else within hearing distance suddenly finds something urgent to do at the other end of the unit. I remember feeling alone and vulnerable until I realized that my coworkers were standing in solidarity on either side and behind me. Their very presence gave me the strength to calmly withstand what was being sent my way and ultimately shamed my attacker into silence. My peers demonstrated strength of heart for which I will always be grateful.
• Does your heart soar when you know that you made a difference in someone's life? After getting into your car at the end of a long and difficult shift, have you felt yourself slumping low into the seat? A nurse friend once sent me a card of encouragement. In it she wrote, "May you never have to lower the rear-view mirror to drive yourself home from work." She was telling me to sit as tall in my seat after my shift as I did before. This meant I should look for moments when I had made a difference rather than just focus on how difficult the shift had been. She was reminding me to keep my heart in tune with what really matters.