Maybe We Need to Re-discover Nursing
There was a time when I believed nursing and healthcare were the same thing.
If healthcare was thriving, nursing was thriving. If healthcare was struggling, nursing was struggling.
Over the years, I realized something important.
Healthcare is a system.
Nursing is a profession.
One is built from policies, budgets, buildings, technology, and organizational priorities. The other is built from people.
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Long before modern hospitals existed, there were people caring for the sick, comforting families, teaching, advocating, and standing beside those who were suffering. Nursing existed before today's healthcare system, and it will continue long after today's version has changed.
When I hear nurses say, “I'm done with healthcare,” I sometimes wonder if what they really mean is, “I'm done with the way healthcare is being delivered.”
Those are not the same thing. The healthcare system may be struggling, but nursing is larger than any organization.
Nursing lives in every lesson a patient teaches us. It lives in every family we comfort. It lives in every difficult decision we make. It lives in every moment we choose humanity over indifference.
The healthcare system may shape where we work. It does not define who we are. Perhaps that is the hope many nurses need right now. Maybe we don't need to discover healthcare. Maybe we need to re-discover nursing.
Nursing is part of who we are, but it is not all that we are. Beneath the scrubs is a whole person–with creativity, purpose, dreams, and a life that belongs to them..
