Reply To: Well stated and provocative. See this video

[Savannah Sharp]

I enjoyed listening and thinking about the perspectives offered in this video. As a new nurse (1 year of experience), I had quite a shock when I started working and saw just how much responsibility the nurse has for the well being of multiple patients. Most people think that it is the MD’s that do all of the patient care but it could not be any more opposite. The nurse is the one who spends 12 hour shifts at the bedside with the patient actually delivering patient care! With that being said, there have been many instances when time could have and should have been better spent at the bedside with patients instead of completing administrative duties. I think that it would be extremely helpful to have an administrative assistant in order to help ease the burden on nurses and allow them to have more time to spend performing hands on patient care. Due to nurses being so busy and always short staffed, shortcuts are being taken and that is how mistakes happen. Even though I find the idea of assistants to be phenomenal, I sadly do not ever see it happening in the near future. I think it would cost the employer too much money and I think that is unfortunately what has the final word.

I also enjoyed gaining a new perspective on how to eliminate the nursing shortages that COVID-19 has caused. The video offered the idea of bringing retired nurses back to the bedside, accelerating graduation of senior nursing students, and hiring international nurses. The video mentioned that hiring international nurses should be avoided because that means that other countries are losing much needed nurses. I never saw this as an issue when thinking about this solution before but it is true! Nurses are needed in every country. Bringing retired nurses back to the bedside and using senior nursing students might not be the best solutions either. Retired nurses might have forgotten some of their skills or not be aware of up to date practices. Senior nursing students haven’t even begun to start actually practicing their skills in a live workplace and doing so under the stress of a national pandemic might be difficult, especially with the level of patient care that COVID-19 patients require. I feel like these options might actually put patients at risk instead of benefit them. However, these individuals and medical assistants alike can help with administrative duties and allow the nurse to spend more time at the bedside. I also found it interesting that this idea has been implemented before by Lydia Hall in the 1960’s. It shows that nurses have been feeling like they need additional support in order to accurately complete their nursing duties for a while now.

The last issue that sparked my interest in this video was the issue of TV shows stereotyping the work of a nurse. TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy do tend to depict nurses as helpers that only do work in the background. This is quite irritating because nurses are just so amazing and do such amazing work for their patients every shift. The author of the video did mention that there are shows out there that do pay tribute to the work of a nurse such as Call the Midwife. I have personally seen this show and it is amazing. I highly recommend it! Thanks for reading. I enjoyed this forum.