The nurses had a trait I think is best described as reverence of duty, that I think I am just starting to understand, let alone practice. I’ve heard it in some of our professors, the responsibility of being nurse, to be in service of one another. All of us learn to care for others, but great nurses don’t just see that as built into the role but rather something decision that is consciously made every day at the bed side. I feel that the nurses shown in the video elevate the rest of us as nurses and inspire me to do better.
I have not worked with patients who are HIV positive while a student a UNE. To this day, patients still deal with the stigma surrounding this disease, and are suffering from the years of inaction brought on by the connotations associated with it. Even patients who wouldn’t be considered the typical HIV patient, ie heterosexual or heterosexual passing, still have to deal with the implications of HIV’s association with the gay community.
Practicing cultural humility allows for nurses to be vulnerable in their patient care, and allows for better connects. Cultural humility is an acknowledgement that there are other ways to do something and they are all equally valid. It means taking an interest in our patients on a truly human level and shows that we don’t just see them as a name in a bed or a disease process.
I have a strong sense of duty. It internally motivating for me, and I think it makes me a better healthcare provider and a better person. I think as a society and as a profession we like to throw the term duty around. But if that duty isn’t something that gets you out of bed in the morning, if it’s not something you’re going to make sacrifices for, then it’s not a duty and more something you do out of convenience. I believe I have a duty to my patients to be a good nurse. I think I have duty to be loyal to the institutions I am apart of, and I think I have a duty to improve them.
I have a high standard. Both for myself and those around me. While that has been a boon for me at times, it can also slow me down. I wouldn’t consider myself a perfectionist, but I think I let myself down when I can’t meet standard, even if it’s not my own. Recently, I’ve found that discussing the expectations with supervisors or professors allows me to better frame task and assignments so I can be a better judge of where I need to be. Also, letting others know where I set the bar for myself requires me to actually know myself and know that bar well enough to describe it too others more than just a feeling. Additionally, sometimes I can acknowledge when I say it aloud if it sounds unrealistic.
