Nursing is often mistaken for being an easy job probably because It’s the fifth most common career in the United States. The book, I Wasn‘t Strong Like This when I Started Out By Lee Gutkind, shows off a different perspective, the real perspective As the author of the book says it nurses are on, “Another dimension of strength and character and persistence; it is a path of often unacknowledged service to society and humanity.” This novel tells of the most heartfelt and excruciating stories of nurses from all over America.
These stories are all nonfiction and each story differs from the nextr From talking about personal lives and how to correlate yourjob with your family to telling stories about patients and their struggles. This book answers any questions anyone looking into this career could ever possibly have. As I read along, taught me many things of how the life of a nurse can be.
But there are two traits that stood out to me the most and those are the passion a nurse must have in order to endure everyday tasks in theirjobs , and the self-love and strength they must accomplish in order to succeed in the nursing careert Passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion, A feeling you get that makes you want to try harder and do everything you can too, in this case, save a life.
This book consists of many different stories as told from a nurses point of views. This story, in particular, is called Heart Lessons it follows a nurse who is working the day shift in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Her name is Diane and she must care for a newborn baby girl with only half of a heart, the little girl’s name is Lamonica. Lamonica struggles to get a grip on life and her family knows it, her parents knew she had a heart condition since she was in the womb, but they didn’t know how far along it really was until she Lamonica saw the light of the world.
Diane is having problems of her own but she must put them all aside when little Lamonica’s heart rate goes through the roof Even though nurse Diane had her issues she fought as hard as she could to keep that baby girl alive. Sadly Lamonica does not make it and Diane fighting back tears hands her motionless body back to her loved ones. Lamonica’s family is devastated and trying to understand what is next. Diane is so passionate to help this baby that she holds her once again in order for her family to grieve in peace. After, Diane explains, “They disappeared through the door, empty»handed, leaving their child in my arms.” She then goes on to talk about how she had to lay her dead body down and photograph her to send these pictures to the family. Diane talks about how hard she tried to make Lamonica look as good and comfortable as possible because these may be the only photos her family has of her. I believe that nurse Diane is truly passionate about her job because she helped the family as much as she could and she gave that baby all she had even after the baby’s soul was no longer in her body.
Diane was truly passionate about Lamonica even if she was only alive for a couple hours and even though there was a ninety percent chance that she would die. Diane gave it her all and left all on the table that alone is a sense of how to love a stranger and an act of true and pure passioni Equally as important as passion is the strength one needs to be a nurse not physically but emotionally. Self»love has to be as important to a nurse as loving and caring for her or his patients. I’ve heard that nurses don’t often talk about theirjob and I always wondered why? In this book, it confirmed that it is because they see a lot of painful and traumatizing stuff at their job They don’t want to put anyone else in that position, Many people go into nursing but they don’t always make it. The theory of nursing students is if they last five years as a nurse they made itl But anything before is considered risky because in those five years you could have a breakdown.
This story is called All Alone And Afraid:Becoming a Person through nursing by Anna Gersman. Anna had trouble understanding why she went into nursing, she wasn’t really maternal and only thought about the stable income she was bound to get, She was afraid she would have a breakdown and quit just like her mom’s younger sisteri But Anna gave it a chance and she cared for an old man his name was Mr.Mcphee he was an angry Irish man. Anna tried so hard to get on his good side but Mr,Mcphee made it clear to her that he did not want her help, Even though he is being extremely cruel to her Anna has to keep together she thinks to herself, and says, “My heart is pounding, despite the cheery smile I have plastered on my face.
Anna tries to keep in mind that Mr.Mcphee has no family and that’s probably why he is always so grumpy Anna is strong but she just can‘t stop thinking about why the old man does not like her self-esteem is very low and she dreads checking on Mr.Mcphee, But one day everything changes, following the death of Mr.Mcphee nurse Anna decides to go to the funeral and at her surprise her are only about four people there, Anna realizes that self-love is so important and being strong is a great thing because patients are struggling and no matter how many times they tell you to leave them alone They really mean stay because that old man was mean all his life because no one ever cared for him so why was he going to care for anyone else.
Through this, I’ve learned so many valuable lessons that I would have never known if it wasn’t for this beautiful book. Nursing is definitely not an easy career and for anyone looking into it I definitely recommend this book because it gives you a whole new perspective on the job of a nurse. They say nurses are invisible but they shouldn’t be, we take them for granted way too much, Nurses will be there for you or your loved ones, they will carejust as if they were a part of your family. Being a nurse takes so much, it takes strength, self~love and passion overall. To be a nurse you need to know who you are and know where your passions lie because like this novel taught me, once you become a nurse you will never be as fragile as you once were.
Nursing Career in Lee Gutkind's Book. (2023, Mar 20). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/a-real-perspective-of-the-nursing-career-in-i-wasn-t-strong-like-this-when-i-started-out-a-book-by-lee-gutkind/