Essay --

We are all familiar with hospitals. Depending on our condition we see many different doctors and nurses. Manny patients think their primary care giver is their doctor, however they are wrong. The primary caregiver is their nurse working every hour, the nurse is checking their vitals, and assessing their condition. Now let’s go to a patient in critical condition. Andrew, a thirty-three year old man who had been badly burned, and lost his leg to the trauma. Andrew was in such pain his attending nurse gave him the max and the nurse was very worried of respiratory collapse. Andrew spent eight weeks in the critical care department, but said he would not have survived it without his attending nurse Ellen. The patient is taken care of, but the patient doesn’t know how the nurse is doing, who is providing their care. That patient doesn’t know if he or she feels overworked or if he or she has had a break in the last twelve hours. The patient probably doesn’t know that the critical care nurse is taking care of seven other patients. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, â€Å"critical care nursing is that specialty within nursing that deals specifically with human responses to life-threatening problems. A critical care nurse is a licensed professional nurse who is responsible for ensuring that acutely and critically ill patients and their families receive optimal care.† (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2010) In summary critical nursing is a daunting task one where one individual would be overworked and trying to be in too many places at once. In addition nurses are feeling an even extra strain because hospitals’ intensive care units are understaffed. Now, this is not an extreme situation, however is a direct iss... ...ge, this is a vicious circle. A circle that needs to be broken by the administrations to provide better care for our nurses which will result in better care of patients. Ultimately something needs to be done to better protect the rights of individual nurses bringing the shortage and patient deaths down. As stated early, nurses are primary caregivers in hospitals. Nursing will never be an easy profession, but it is an admirable one. Nurses aren’t nurses because they receive worthy pay or have decent schedules. Nurses are the ultimate care givers because they are compassionate and have a passion for helping others. Unfortunately, the lack of respect and shortage makes it difficult for nurses to truly see the gift they are giving their patients. In summary it is all about finding solutions to better our healthcare organizations who can better the lives of all nurses.