The only thing I will ask of people is that unless you are a nurse- please don't judge us. And please don't judge all nurses by what is going on with one or two. There are almost 3 million of us in the United States, and that's not counting our LPN brothers and sisters- there's another 690,000 of them.
Three million nurses. There are 317 million people in The United States. That's a pretty big nurse-to patient ratio (my nurse friends will get that joke...).
That's also a lot of responsibility. 61% of those 3 million nurses work in the hospital setting. A little over 500,000 work in critical and progressive care settings. These include the traditional ICUs, but also emergency departments, recovery rooms, and progressive (better known as "step-down") care units.
So....500,000 divided by 317 million...well what it equals out to is that you better be nice to us, because there aren't a lot of us to take care of everyone out there.
Today I attended the first of a 2-day course built for critical care nurses. It is a review course that is geared toward helping prepare me to take a certification test.
A test, you ask? Why would you take a test? Aren't you already a nurse?
Yep. But crazy me, I am interested in taking my knowledge and experience to the next level. This is a different sort of education from the more traditional form of education that comes in the matter of "Degrees". I am working towards becoming certified as a critical care educator, while the majority of the nurses with me today are hoping to certify as a critical care bedside nurse. .Becoming certified in critical care is kind of like getting a Chef designation. You can be a hell of a cook, but taking courses to upgrade your overall knowledge and skills allows you enhance a gift that is already above baseline.
Unless you are a nurse, there is just no way to understand what we really do and are responsible for. Our spouses don't know (unless your spouse is a nurse...), the physicians don't know (holy cow they don't have any idea...), and even more astonishingly- our patients don't know. But that truly doesn't bother us.
They don't know that I paid $100 plus used two days of vacation time to attend this class. They don't know that I will spend another $100 in study material, as well as another $100 just to actually take the certification exam. They don't know that I study things like Albumin, bilirubin, electrolytes, endocrinology, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, pharmacology and hematology at night before I go to bed.
Because in most hospitals, it's not just the doctor who gets you better. It's the nurse.
It's the nurse who realizes there is a change in your cardiac rhythm and knows how to treat it, then alerts the physician.
It's the nurse who watches your sodium, glucose, and potassium levels to make sure the correct IV fluid gets hung or stopped appropriately so that you don't blow up like a balloon or shrivel up like a raisin.
It's the nurse who watches for any little sign of infection, neurological changes, kidney shut down, or bleeding.
It's the nurse who makes sure your blood transfusion is compatible with your own blood, and that the medication you are getting is the right med at the right time for the right patient and the right condition.
It's the nurse who knows how to run and trouble shoot every piece of medical equipment known to man. I mean, good God I dare you to ask a doctor to manage a ventilator, IV pumps, dialysis machine, balloon pump, and swan-ganz catheter--all at the same time, on the same patient.
It's the nurse that puts their own safety at risk when you are sick with the swine flu, HIV, pneumonia, or a disease that people don't yet really understand.
And yes, it's the nurse who holds your hand, wipes your butt when you can't, and wipes your tears because you just got told you had cancer. Or a heart attack. Or a miscarriage.
Will I get paid more for getting certified in critical care? No. Across the country, the most a nurse would get is probably $1 more an hour. And that nurse has to gain twice as many continuing education hours as a non-certified nurse, as well as work a minimum amount of hours every year in a critical care environment- you know, one of those low-stress areas....
Our presenter for this class is hilarious, and is a strong advocate for the nursing profession. She is also scary smart. At the end of the day she put up this slide, and asked if this job description was posted in the newspaper, did we think any of us would have signed up. Funny thing is, I think most of us would. Because each of us knows we don't do this for the glory- remember, most people have no idea what we actually do and put up with. And we certainly don't do it for the amazing pay.
Tonight's picture represents the nurse and their amazing commitment to the human race despite conditions that at times are not...ideal. Thank you to the 50,000 certified nurses in critical care who have dedicated their own time and money to learn how to care for about the human body than most. Thank you to the 200 nurses who came today to start or continue their journey towards certification. Your dedication to caring for the 317 million people out there never ceases to amaze me. So do me a favor and tell a nurse "thank you" over the next few days, even if you don't know them- because I will tell you a secret.
That is why we do it.
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