Is it me or is nursing spending more and more time chasing the Perception of Doing Well than we are addressing Nursing Care issues and point of care problems?

I have been a Nurse for --------- Let’s just say for close to a very, very, very long time.

Back in the day of Pre EBS(Everybody Being a Specialist), staff could depend upon Nursing to address such issues as poor staffing, lack of supplies / needed equipment on the unit, and the always changing, always needed training to enhance skills and knowledge. IT is next to impossible to find a manual BP cuff, adequate operational patient transfer lifts, and something as simple as a pencil at times. These issues are true time consumers for the average bedside Nurse.

Is it me or are we are spending more and more time trying to figure out when the patient refused his flu shot and who failed to record that “smoking cessation” information was shared with the patient at three times. It seems to me that we are becoming more and more concerned about my working relationship with my colleagues than we are ultimate treatment outcomes of the clients we serve.

I’m not saying these things are not extremely important, however maybe; just maybe, we need to step back and see if we have missed the point of hospitalized inpatient care. Do not get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support a holistic total patient care, but when there are dwindling resources available at the point of care, one must ask why are we spending so much time trying to grab the so called Brass Ring. Maybe, just maybe, to some Perception is everything.

Steven Covey’s phrase “putting First things, First” is very apropos for most task at hand.

If nursing started to address some of work environment issues that impact nurses at the bedside, maybe, just maybe, nursing would build a more cohesive stable work force. Instead of the great effort to move nurses away from the bedside into specialty type roles, maybe; just maybe, it would be more beneficial to put the resources where they will do the greatest good at the bedside. Maybe, just maybe!!!

These are just the ramblings of a very old nurse. The opinions stated here are just my views from askew!