Before SIP, i didn’t really know what nurses did in the wards, apart from taking patients’ parameters, bathing them, moving them around and occasionally harrassing poor medical students like us.
But after the internship started, i’m quite overawed by what the nurses really do…
1. They are our eyes and our ears in the ward, they always know everything and anything about the patient, down to the 0.1 change in temperature, the colour and consistency of their stools and whether any patient had been naughty and snuck in some contraband food…
2. They are like superrr strong! Don’t see the staff nurse, some 40+ year-old small-sized auntie… her biceps pack a punch manz… imagine her hauling this double her size male patient around the bed!
3. Their capacity for numbers sometimes makes me wonder why I can’t remember which side my patients’ stroke was on… Ask them about any patient’s parameters (as long as the patient is in their cubicle), they can give you almost the accurate answer each time!
4. They basically form the foundation of ALL ward work. Like what prof said today, if the doctors had to run the wards, we’d be rolling patients on the floor and hosing them, instead of being able to carry them to the toilet to bathe properly! Yup, and who’s the one who always knows where the elusive temperature charts, case notes and IMRs are? the NURSES of cuz! (mostly anyway…)
5. Nurses form the first line communication with the relatives of the patients. They can tell us exactly who’s who and who are the finicky one, they can even tell us the complicated family dynamics or quarrels, that’s if we do stop to listen.
All in all, i just feel that nurses do so much but so little of what they do is seen and appreciated and instead of waiting for this ONE day to commemorate and be thankful of their contribution, we should think more of how they make each day’s wardwork such a success and offer a smile of gratitude whenever we meet one along the corridors. Yeah, and for those mean docs out there, stop scolding your nurses over tiny things k!
