I’m here to state out loud that patients, society, healthcare, and, most of all, nurses need more authentic caring events in healthcare.
It is within nursing and nurses to be the providers of authentic caring.
Caring science is rich with research and knowledge of the dimensions of caring.
Nurses come with the desire.
Nursing schools introduce authentic caring.
But, its development, acknowledgement and support virtually suspend upon entering employment in the healthcare system.
From there, nurses are on their own in developing their individual authentic caring skills.
There are several reasons that the drive to help nurses develop authentic caring has not been touched:
- How to develop authentic caring on a collective level is not well understood by nurse educators or leaders
- Administrative nursing leaders are consumed by other competing priorities
- Nurses are too distracted and consumed by their empirics learning curves and practice demands to think of authentic caring as a realistic option in their work settings
- Nurses do not think it is possible to increase the frequency of authentic caring in their current practice
- Nurses blame the healthcare system and its leaders for not allowing authentic caring to occur
- Nurses do not understand that the mechanism for development of authentic caring involves personal nursing knowledge development
- Nurses do not know that the mechanism for authentic caring development is within themselves and is dependent on them, and only them
- Nurse leaders do not acknowledge the critical importance of authentic caring in nursing practice
- Nurse leaders have not caught onto the fact that authentic caring is the soul of nursing and that they have a role in supporting it in practice
- Nurse leaders have not caught onto the relationship between the more authentic caring that occurs, the higher nurse satisfaction there is, the higher patient satisfaction there is, and the less turnover, burnout and attrition
- And other healthcare leaders outside of nursing have seen glimpses of authentic caring, but don’t understand its nature or importance
Clearly,
this is not all nurses,
and not all nurse educators,
and not all nurse leaders,
and not all organizations……
As a retired r.n. who has had to be on “the other side of the bed” during hospital stays, I longed to get just one nurse who would look me in the eye while speaking to me and not watching her rolling computer,and to give me the care that I gave to my patients.
Ahhh Katy,
It’s true. Those situations are hard.
Thanks for sharing.
And we know there are nurses who are seeking ways to connect more.
My best to you,
pat
I hear you Katy!
Management in nursing homes don’t want good nurses if they can’t function by covering up others errors and being quiet. They’d rather have poor nurses who lie and play politics.
oh, this is heart breaking.
Keep doing your best and sounding the bell.
Thank you for sharing here.
pat
When you start having teams for IV therapy,wound care,etc,you will find the nurses have more time for vital signs and assessments thus giving them the time to connect with their patients and provide top notch care.
Good. Thank you for sharing here your focus of nurses connecting. Hearing what others are doing and thinking is affirmation for the rest of us.
pat
The worst part of my day comes when I know there was more to be done, but time does not allow for it. I have been fortunate enough to work in hospitals that encourage patient satisfaction. My current hospital is indescribably unorganized. Chaos,. I miss having time to treat my patients as well as I could.
ahhh. dang. This is the way it is in so many places. I’m glad you shared here. It helps to share and helps for us all to hear.. together.
Thanks, pat
#8 stands out the most. I was educated in authentic caring. I went to a school of nursing and the hallmark of my care was the “basic” bedbath. During this time it is when I assess my patient head to toe, get to know their life history, their fears and hopefully get them better in a holistic way. My type of nursing care is no longer validated in our current health care environment. There is no HCAP score given for my basic care, yet my patient last week told his daughter the best part of his day was his nurse and how good I made him feel by caring for him.
Ahhhh. And yes, each of your patients do feel your authentic caring. And your caring has a direct impact on the pt satisfaction scores. You raise the standard of caring and patients know it.
Keep going, showing the way.
Thank you.pat
Become hospice nurse. You truly practice caring everyday. It is taught, encouraged and it is a reward all to itself. When you get their pain under control after working on it all night and you have a medical director.who never gets upset when you call for the fourth time.because. you.have titrated.all you.can.under. the.standing.orders and she gives you what you need to finally get your patient’s pain under control. There is no greater satisfaction that working as a team we got this patient comfortable and the stress level on their loved ones drops almost 100 per cent. Andthey pay me to do this. I feel so lucky to have found the right job for me.
And this is what it is all about! Thank you for sharing the meaning it has.
pat