When Nurses Lose Their Way

I remember years ago when I first entered the nursing workforce, I was full of such ideals and optimism. Like most new nurses, I always had high aspirations and approached each day with enthusiasm and a smile firmly in place. Unfortunately, my aspirations were soon crushed when I met a nurse of thirty years who's lousy attitude caused me to rethink my future.

I didn't understand at first how a nurse with so much experience and knowledge to offer could be such a difficult person to get along with. Her dreadful personality was so contemptuous that even the physicians went out of their way to avoid her. She was rude, intimidating, insulting and just outright nasty.

It wasn't until her behavior began to cross the boundaries of patient satisfaction that administration began to take notice. After mounting patient complaints administration could no longer ignore, the nurse with a lifetime of experience was let go. At first, I was left with the question of how this nurse could have gotten so lost in her own insolence. Unfortunately, as time went on, I began to see a pattern emerge.

Nursing is an extremely harsh area for a long term career. It completely sucks the life out of many who dare challenge its enormity. The values that nurses hold dear are persistently tested as their internal conflicts seem to endlessly collide with their external controversies. Nurses who get lost in the wake are not at all uncommon to the profession, and "burnout" is the end result. This leaves some with bitter emotions feeling as if there is no way out.

When this does occur, I think it is time for the nurses with a lifetime of experience to take time to learn from the new nurses entering the work force. It is time to sit back and remember the ideals that brought us into nursing in the first place. Our opportunities to grow are endless but only if we allow them in. So, in those futile moments when we think we will self destruct, we must remind ourselves why we are there and understand that our presence never goes unnoticed by those who need us most.