With Halloween fast approaching, everyone is sorting out their costumes and what not to try and have that "winner" for the big party. And you may have read my article title and be thinking, "What in God's name does this have to do with nursing school? This girl has lost her mind..." Well, I assure you that while my mental stability is in constant question due to the rigor of my life, one does in fact have to do with the other. You see, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed when up came a photo of a guy wearing scrubs, with a sign around his neck which more or less read, "I'm a nursing major. So obviously my major is harder than yours." Basically, he was making fun of nursing majors. Well sir, call me hardened or humorless, but I don't find your costume humorous in the slightest. You see I am one of these nursing majors you speak of and I had just gotten off of having clinical on a Saturday for ten hours, when I worked at the hospital the night before and had a different clinical the day before that and classes the previous two days before that. So yeah, my major is probably harder than whatever yours is because while you go out and make fun, I will sit at home and study for my exams and prepare to do it all again this week. But that's not even what's important. For me, the thing that is important is that there is so much more to nursing school than the long days and the excruciatingly hard tests and the even longer nights with no sleep; it's all the lessons about life that I've learned so far that no classroom ever could have taught me.
1) Life must be played as a team.
Being a nurse, you are never working solo. There are doctors and other professional disciplines, family members and the patient that are all on your team and without them none of it works. You don't get to succeed if one member of the team is not cooperative. Life is the same. We all have a team to play on. Whether it be our families or our friends or whoever, but in the end our team makes us better and they push us to succeed.
2) Assessment is always the answer.
If you happen to be reading this and you ARE a nursing major, this one will probably make you laugh for obvious reasons. In the world of nursing, we are taught that before we do anything we must assess the situation FIRST. You cannot move on without first knowing what you're dealing with. In life, if we applied this principle to our daily interactions we would be less likely to make quick reactions that we later regret. As in nursing, we must stop and assess what is happening in our lives before continuing and very importantly, before speaking.
3) Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.
When I was a little girl, I remember hearing, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him about your plans." This is true in life and in nursing. We can try and make a plan of action, but the odds of that being the way it actually goes are slim to none. So the key is to be flexible and ready for anything. Expect the unexpected.
4) It's all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits.
Yes, this does happen. No, maintenance does not clean it up. Nurses do. In life, we think we can push the envelope and nothing bad will happen, but it has been very clearly shown to me that the further you push it and the closer you come to that line, the more at risk you are to be cleaning up shit (literally).
5) It's hard because it's worth it.
Nursing school sucks. There, I said it. In case no one has given you permission to be miserable from time to time, I just have. I love nursing, I feel as though I was born to be a nurse, but nursing school truly sucks sometimes (most of the time) because it's hard. But I know that the minute I have that diploma in my hand and those letters behind my name, it will all have been worth it. Nothing I'm doing is in vain (or vein; hehe, nursing joke).
6) Time is not promised; nothing is.
If nursing has taught me anything about life it is this right here; nothing is promised. I have watched perfectly healthy people deteriorate overnight. People who once were doing for themselves now be immobile and bedridden and wish for it to all be over. Families fill a room with love and compassion as they see their loved one slip away. If this has taught me anything it is that time is the most precious gift we are given in this world and we never know when we will be on the other side of the hospital gown.
7) It's alright if you cry.
When I was in my first semester of nursing school, I shadowed on a hospice unit. I asked the nurse there how she had done it for all those years without getting down on the world. What she told me was that she learned to feel with people, instead of feeling for them. This has changed my views in my career immensely. I know that there will be hard times in nursing and in life, but when I need to, it's perfectly acceptable to feel with someone and to cry with them if need be.
8) Standing up for myself doesn't make me "rude."
When I first began nursing school, I had this huge fear that standing up for myself to people of authority when and if I needed to would make me come across as disrespectful and nonconforming. But the reality of this is, I am slightly nonconforming and it is okay to stand up for myself as long as I do it in a manner that does not demean the other person. I use this not only in my career with superiors but in life with my friends and family.
9) If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
This one goes out to one of my favorite patient populations; the elderly. When I was shadowing on an Alzheimer's/Dementia unit a couple of years back, a nurse who had been working there well over twenty years gave me this exact advice. You're often taught in nursing school to reorient a confused patient, but in reality that may just irritate them more. So her advice? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Just roll with the punches of life and day to day events and only change what you can. The rest isn't mine to worry about anyways.
10) Compassion is the key to the heart.
Finally, the most important lesson, that no classroom could have possibly taught me is about compassion. Compassion comes in many forms, but when it is authentic there is nothing like it and people can sense it. They know someone who is genuine from someone who is not. And it is for this reason, the fact that I can give compassion, that I believe I was born to be a nurse.
