ADVENTURES IN NURSING

MRS. J

I learned my most valuable nursing lesson from Mrs. J.  They are words that I’ve always remembered and apply to many areas of life, not just in the nursing field.

She was a hospital clinical instructor we met in our second year.  She was very pleasant, laid-back, funny as hell, and very down to earth.  She won our hearts when she agreed to adopt one of our too many kittens.  That was a big deal to us, let me tell you.

The lesson she taught us?  I suggest you remember these words and pass them on when appropriate.  “You don’t always have to know what you’re doing, BUT you always have to LOOK like you know what you’re doing.”   Isn’t that brilliant? 

Now, you may be thinking, “What the heck?  You mean the nurses who take care of us don’t always know what they’re doing??”  Let me assure you that nurses DO know what they’re doing, at least 99.999999% of them do.  If you look hard and long enough, you could probably find that one or two nurses on the planet who were taught the proper way to do nursing procedures, but choose to do it “their” way in real life.  Incompetent nurses don’t last long in real life, though. 

Imagine you’re a nursing student, and have practiced your nursing skills on rubber people for months and months.  Then comes the day your clinical instructor informs you that you’ll be catheterizing Ms. So-and-so in Room 839.  Not to worry – you’ve done this before, just not on a real live patient.  How hard can it be, right?  Then your instructor informs you that Ms. So-and-so might be a little testy, since two real live nurses have already attempted to catheterize her without success. 

This is exactly what happened to our classmate T, the tall blonde Viking goddess.  So T, our instructor, and three of us classmates all trooped into Ms. So-and-so’s room to do this thing.  Our instructor had a most ornery grin on her face as she explained to the patient why we were there.  The mildly overweight patient took one look at the tall blonde Viking goddess and said, “You get one shot at this.”

Thank the good Lord she wasn’t MY patient.  I would have dissolved into a puddle of tears at those words.  I was already a nervous wreck and I was just there to observe.  The patient then asked T if she had done this before.  With all the aplomb of a seasoned nurse, T replied, “Oh my gosh, yes, hundreds of times.  Don’t worry about a thing.”  She then proceeded to insert a catheter into an irate, mildly overweight patient without a hitch.  We observers were in total awe, and tried very hard not to act like we were all holding our breath during the procedure.  T was a star that day.  What a gal!

My point here is that T was following that advice.  She walked in that room with confidence, and instilled that confidence in the patient, so everyone relaxed just a little bit, and the procedure went off like gangbusters.  Your attitude can make a large difference to a patient, and can make your job so much easier.

Mrs. J had other sterling qualities that made her an excellent nurse and instructor – things like patience, compassion, empathy, kindness – but what I remember most about her is the advice she gave us.  It is invaluable advice and has served me well lo, these many years.

Thank you, Mrs. J.  I’ve never forgotten you!