This week on the NICU, I realized that being on the floors as an RN your work consists of about 30% nursing skill and 70% 'other'. That 'other' category includes everything from comforting worrisome, tearful mothers to giving directions to listening to rants about someone's personal life you never even asked about (and of course there was the one who told me all about this cyst he had).
As a nurse, I'm learning that people open up to you. If you ask them a simple question like, 'are you hanging in there with all of this?' you must be prepared for stories and tears and laughter and strange details that you never wanted to know. Some of this I'm prepared and expecting to hear. A lot of it though, I could never have prepared for; nursing classes could not even give you the necessary prep to help you work through some of these situations. Not only is there this 70% of 'other' skills that are necessary for the job, but there's the 30% nursing skills that are the reason why I was hired and the actual work I was hired to do ( or maybe they just don't include the 'other' category in the job description).
Somewhere in between all the psychosocial and random situations I find myself experiencing on the NICU, I have to find time for the actual work I'm supposed to be doing. It's quite a balance and something I must learn quickly. Labs have to be drawn, cares carried out, orders followed up on, doctors notified, medications mixed and given on time and parents need an update. I watch some of my fellow RNs and I'm inspired by the balance they have acquired and I'm hopeful that I can watch and learn. This IS nursing and it's not just blood pressures and dressing changes.
As a nurse, I'm learning that people open up to you. If you ask them a simple question like, 'are you hanging in there with all of this?' you must be prepared for stories and tears and laughter and strange details that you never wanted to know. Some of this I'm prepared and expecting to hear. A lot of it though, I could never have prepared for; nursing classes could not even give you the necessary prep to help you work through some of these situations. Not only is there this 70% of 'other' skills that are necessary for the job, but there's the 30% nursing skills that are the reason why I was hired and the actual work I was hired to do ( or maybe they just don't include the 'other' category in the job description).
Somewhere in between all the psychosocial and random situations I find myself experiencing on the NICU, I have to find time for the actual work I'm supposed to be doing. It's quite a balance and something I must learn quickly. Labs have to be drawn, cares carried out, orders followed up on, doctors notified, medications mixed and given on time and parents need an update. I watch some of my fellow RNs and I'm inspired by the balance they have acquired and I'm hopeful that I can watch and learn. This IS nursing and it's not just blood pressures and dressing changes.
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