I am now living in my sixth decade, retired and have time to look over my life. I had the dream to become a nurse and made it. I went to the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing diploma program. I was strongly encouraged by my husband to go and get my BS in Nursing. A little thing called Chemistry took away all my confidence so I went to work. Do I regret not getting my BS? Yes and no. I had a full career as a nurse. I worked in the medical and surgery units. I worked specialties like the Tb units on Guam . Then I went into Psychiatry and stayed there for decades. I often wonder what would have happen if I could have sucked it up and chased a different road and got my degree.

I know that the new nurses are having to get degrees and even being a floor nurse is so much more technical than in my time. Would I put my training against them on the floor? Yes I would.  Because something has been losted in today’s nursing world. The new nurses have great knowledge technicals knowledge, but the art of caring for a patient and putting them at ease doesn’t exist. And giving care such as making sure that a patient is feed, and that they are clean and comfortable, has been lost. Is this true of all new nurses? I don’t know.  But I was in the hospital three years ago and these things I am talking about were sorely lacking.Where is the blance between the highly trained nurse and the nurse of my time who was an artist at giving good patient care? Where is the nurse who made sure the room was clean, the bed was made everyday, and who made sure the meds were given correctly? I don’t know. But when I look back and wonder if not getting my degree was a mistake, I can say unequivocally, NO!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under Education, Looking Back, Nursing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.