Why is being a nurse crazy?
I first wrote this piece for a speech through Toastmasters International. I was driving yesterday when the thought to post it crossed my mind. Here are some thoughts to why being a nurse is crazy and how I wouldn't have it any other way.
Nursing is one of those jobs that
is difficult to describe.
If you ask a non-nurse what a nurse
does you may get a response such as...”they care for sick people” or “they pass
me my medications.” You could get a response like “a nurse saved my life” or “a
nurse gave the best care to my pre-mature baby” or “a nurse gave the best care
to my dying mother.”
While these are all true, nursing
means so much more. There is the good, bad, ugly, and psychotic when it comes
to being a nurse. I’m going to tell you a few ways of how being like a nurse is
like being a psych patient or crazy.
The DSM IV is the 4th
edition manual published by the American Psychological Association listing all
currently recognized mental health disorders. In this manual there are a few
diagnoses for nurses.
A diagnosis of Depersonalization
Disorder #300.6 in the DSM IV. This diagnosis is characterized as a mental
disorder with common symptoms such as feeling disconnected from one’s own
thoughts or emotions, disconnected from reality, as if one is dreaming or
having an out of body experience. Nurses feel like this quite often, mostly
while working in a hospital or during an emergency. A time I felt this way was
while performing CPR on an 88 year old in the back of a life flight helicopter.
I’m taking turns with the flight nurse between squeezing the ambu bag providing
breaths and giving chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. It was very
clear to me that my trained instincts took over as I felt like I was having an
out of body experience. My heart and emotions were detached from my body-the
only focus was saving that little 88 yo woman who was someone’s grandmother.
Another diagnosis is
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder #301.4 in the DSM IV characterized by
a pervasive pattern of pre-occupation with orderliness, perfectionism, mental
and interpersonal control and a need for power over one’s environment.
Oh now why would a nurse be
considered as having OCPD? Well here is one example…a nurse has 8 patients that
she or he is responsible for during a shift. All 8 of them have medications due
around 9am. We are trained to be OCD about medications…mostly just to keep from
killing someone by giving them the wrong medication. No big deal, right?!
Here is your nurse meticulously
trying to get the medications ready for the 8 patients and in the middle of
this meticulous counting, 3 of the 8 patients are calling simultaneously because they need
their nurse. One needs to go to the bathroom, One needs pain medication, and the
other one dropped their TV remote on the floor. Now the nurse has to start all
over with those medications. Oh the tragedy when she is interrupted again…the patient is then met with the response…”you are just going to have to wait!”
Please forgive your nurse...she is
only suffering from OCPD so she doesn’t want to harm you or anyone else.
Another diagnosis is Dissociative
Identity Disorder, previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, #300.14 in
the DSM IV characterized as having at least two distinct and relatively
enduring identities alternatively controlling a person’s behavior.
Nurses have multiple personalities
so we can effectively deal with all of our patients. For example, in room one
the patient is dying and very close to death. The emotional environment is
somber.
Next door the patient just received
a knee replacement. He walked for the first time since surgery and met his
daily goal! YAY!!
The patient at the end of the hall
just had a bowel movement and I need to get a sample of that poop! Oh joy!!!
A quote off the internet that
circulated around nurses week…author unknown.
“Somewhere right now, a NURSE is getting yelled at for
being late with pain meds, while holding her bladder because she doesn’t have
time to pee, starving because she missed her break, being pooped/peed/bled on,
and is missing her family while taking care of yours. NURSES all over the world
are saving lives.”
All of this because we care!
So be mindlful of your
nurse…because you are dealing with someone who cares.
It takes a strong person to be a
nurse and even though we are sometimes psychotic or act like a psych patient we
are only in this for you. Yeah we are crazy and we did this on purpose so...is
that too a psych diagnosis in itself?
William Osler once said…”the
trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place
beside the physician and the priest”
Crazy huh?! Thank you.
NurseNicelyRN
"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." ~Romans 13:10 KJV
Please do not misinterpret this posting with any true diagnosis from the DSM IV. Nor should you believe that I am making light of any person or persons with any of these diagnoses as I am passionate about the care of ALL illness whether mental or physical.
