The Construction of Nursing

Nursing ~ a job, a career, a vocation

The image of the nurse has changed dramatically in 45 years, no longer seen with white starched uniforms and caps

Haven’t been for years.

We are not relegated to hospitals and doctors offices.

Nurses are spread liberally throughout communities

not just in hospitals, but in clinics, schools, in work places, on cruise ships, in isolated communities in the north.

Nurses are street nurses, detox nurses, intensive care nurses, pediatric nurses; nursing specialties abound.

For most nurses in hospitals, we are clothed in scrubs (once only relegated to the Operating Room) and in community clinics attire may be denims and t-shirts.

Nurses are considered by many to be the front line of health care.

(Makes it sound like a battle zone!)

And, I can’t think how many times I’ve heard nurses called

angels of mercy or cruel and heartless.........

It doesn’t seem that what we wear always makes much difference

although when some one of us does take the time to appear ‘professionally dressed' it is appreciated - ‘I know who the nurses are.’ Whether starched whites or denims and t-shirts, in clinics or hospital units (or pods, or neighbourhoods), nurses aspire to provide the same care.

And then there are all the changes in health care systems that

nurses manage as well as managing their clients.  And we continue aspire to provide the same care.

Hospitals are built, reconfigured and torn down as 

technology changes

space needed is re-evaluated and revamped.

Salaries change with the 

seesaw of union and management conversations

variant budget needs of societies.

Equipment used is upgraded for 

ease of use

improved safety features

Documentation of patient progress also is upgraded to

computer driven programs

while many still are pen and paper

some still are transitioning so are using both old and new

always taking care that legalities are maintained.

Despite all these changes - 

nurses in any and all of these areas

ride with the changes (not always patiently so)

caring for their patients and advocating for your good health.

“To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do,

in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse.”

~ Rawsi Williams