During a grade 11 co-op placement, I was assigned to complete my hours on an inpatient oncology unit. My roles were very similar to those of volunteers, I was allowed to get patients’ blankets, and water, or sit and keep them company. There were many days I was able to shadow nurses, unit clerks, physicians, physiotherapists and social workers. I was drawn to nursing because I enjoyed that they seemed to have the longest interaction with patients during their shifts. Once I began nursing school as an RPN and made my way into the healthcare field, I knew I had made the right decision by being a nurse. I enjoy the medical side just as much as the frequent patient interactions.
Learning more about the history of nursing in Canada has surprised me. It is shocking to learn that nursing care in hospitals was provided by nursing students until the 1940s. Characteristics of a good nurse were appalling In Canada’s First University Programs, like the University of British Columbia in 1919, characteristics of a good nurse were described as some of the following (Astle, et. al, 2024).
- “Purity, truthfulness, trustworthiness, cheerfulness, quietness”
- “Submissive to male physicians”
- “Be kind and respectful on all occasions”
- “Attend to needs with gentleness and exactitude taught by their superiors”
- “Faithfully carry out the physician’s orders”
- “Never interfere with or criticize the treatment”
- “The school’s motto was ‘I see and I am silent'” (Astle, et. al, 2024)
Today’s nursing heavily contrasts what was originally taught. It demonstrates the importance of a nurse’s role. We are not simply tools or instruments the doctors use to carry out treatment plans but play a vital role as part of the healthcare team.
As many nurses are, I am worried that I will bear the burden of not providing the high-quality care I want to all the time. As it is written about in the How to Nurse textbook, I fear this may take a toll on my mental health over time. My view of Canada’s healthcare system has worsened since entering into the field. For 7 years now, I have encountered many situations where I felt neither I nor the system helped a person enough. I realize that some outcomes are entirely out of our control, and I have slowly been able to make peace with that. Doane and Varcoe use this example about a nurse feeling like she did not provide adequate end-of-life care to this patient who passed within the hour of being admitted onto a unit from the ER. The case discussed how the nurse did not feel like she had enough time to provide high-quality care to the patient before he died. She did, however, advocate for interventions to keep the patient comfortable and spend time with the pt’s wife after he died providing emotional support to her. Doane and Varcoe praise the nurse’s actions, highlighting how she still provided good care despite her self-criticism. They mention that this “half-empty” view the nurse. Figuratively taking a page from this book, trying to focus more on what I am able to do for my patients instead of what I wish I could have done more of will improve my mental health and relationship with nursing (Doane, & Varcoe, 2021).
References
Astle, B. J., Duggleby, W., Perry, A. G., Potter, P. A., & Stockert, P. A. (2024). Potter and Perry’s Canadian Fundamentals of Nursing. Elsevier Canada.
Doane, G. H., & Varcoe, C. (2021). How to nurse: Relational inquiry in action. Wolters Kluwer.