[Applause]
it’s not easy to acknowledge humanity
humans are wired to desire emotional
connections with other people but we
often have trouble practicing it so and
one of the best examples of this is the
medical field so I haven’t been a
nursing student for very long just a
little bit over a semester but I’ve been
a part of the healthcare system since I
was born in fact everyone has and
everyone will encounter the healthcare
system at various points in their life
no matter who they are no matter where
you live what you do healthcare
professionals are there so nurses are an
integral part of a person’s life one
would say they’re there for the best and
therefore the worst they see people at
their peak of vulnerability whether it
be the good times or the bad
so Nursing is a profession of deep
connection or at least it’s intended to
be so the ironic part of this is that
the fact that nurses and doctors are
supposed to deeply connect with people
is one of the reasons that the health
care system is so broken we often tend
to treat patients as problems to be
fixed rather than people to be nurtured
we have to come face-to-face with
humanity at its most raw every time we
go to work and it’s hard for us to
separate and connect with our patients
as people because it’s scary because
it’s sad because it’s way easier to
start an IV than it is to hold somebody
when they’re crying and they’ve lost
someone they love so on what we need to
realize is that we aren’t fixing a
problem our job is much more complex
than that
we’re treating a person so treating a
disease is often more convenient than
trying to treat a person because you
don’t have to deal with confronting
humanity doctors shoot their best shots
with medicines and treatments and
they’ve done all they can do but nurses
and doctors aren’t hired to insure
without a shadow of a doubt that their
patients walk out at the hospital alive
our job is to do everything in our power
to take the best care possible of our
patients and not just 6 their symptoms
and to listen to their own desires and
put that at the forefront of their care
Nursing is not an engineering profession
our job is not to fix people and it will
never be to fix people it’s to care for
them and if we focus on caring for
people we automatically give them the
best chance of walking out of the
hospital doors alive fixing the problem
will follow I’m just as guilty of this
dehumanization as anyone else in the
healthcare field whenever somebody asked
me about the uncomfortable tasks that
come with the nursing profession my
general response is oh it’s just a body
so when somebody asks me how I handle
sink naked people all the time my answer
is it’s no big deal it’s just a body but
every time that comes out of my mouth
I’m wrong because patients are far more
than bodies they are parents their
friends their people and their souls
there’s an organization called the cusan
Institute it stands for quality and
safety education for nurses and it
outlines basically the standards for
nursing education across the u.s. so
that we’re all qualified and skilled
enough to work in that environment
one of the six main competencies that
they encourage for us is
patient-centered care which I’m sure if
you’re anywhere in the medical field you
have heard that word a million times
so basically patient-centered care is
why we give report at the bedside of the
patient it’s why we asked about their
hobbies and their culture could cultural
concerns and document it in their health
history it’s why we do almost everything
that we do and what Houston outlines as
a suggestion for nurses to approach
patient-centered care is to value seeing
health care situations through the
patient’s eyes this relates heavily to
the concept of empathy verse sympathy
which once again if you’re a nursing
student it has been beaten into your
head so empathy is basically it’s
feeling what somebody else feels out of
genuine care and compassion for them
it’s not like sympathy which is just
pitying someone so we as nurses need to
stop saying oh I feel so sorry for that
patient that breaks my heart to see them
like that because it’s not about us we
need to practice empathy and say wow I
can feel that that person’s hurting I
need to do anything I can to help them
so it’s kind of I sort of think of
treating patients or talking to patients
a little bit like seeing teachers out in
public it’s a little awkward so like I
know when everyone was in high school
I’m sure you ran into the local grocery
store or the restaurant into your high
school teacher and you want to go talk
to them but you’re also kind of nervous
because it’s like seeing a fish out of
water
you don’t really connect that they have
a life other than teaching you so it’s
kind of like patience when I go in a
patient’s room it’s really hard and
sometimes sort of sad to see that
somebody who can’t even really take care
of themselves a lot of times can’t feed
themselves can’t bathe themselves can’t
move themselves is someone just like me
that has a really important life outside
of the hospital so with the buzz around
patient-centered care what we need to do
is just that we need to assume nothing
and we need to treat our patients as
people and not just a chart we need to
ask our patients what they want when I
was working I went in for Morning Report
and I had a patient with he was in the
process of being diagnosed for
depression with no existing diagnosis
the nurses told me to sort of stay out
of his way because he didn’t really want
to talk to anyone but to sort of watch
for signs and symptoms and he had them
all he was eating almost nothing he
slept every time I went in the room and
I could barely wake him up to even take
his blood pressure but when his lunch
came I asked him if he wanted me to stay
and eat with him or if he wanted me to
step out while he ate and he asked me to
stay and within about 15 minutes or so I
had him smiling and laughing and he ate
a lot more of his lunch than he had been
eating so maybe his issue was lack of
him in connection and maybe it was my
job as the nurse to try just a little
bit harder to get through to him so by
focusing too much on the medical side of
healthcare we’re focusing on a battle we
can’t fight or win at the end of the day
we can’t control the fate of our
patients and we can’t bring anyone we
lose back to life we can’t play God but
we can make the best out of the worst
situation by treating our patients first
for most is people so this
dehumanization that exists in the
healthcare system exists a lot because
of inconvenience
it’s very easy to treat a medical
problem it’s easy to give them medicine
it’s easy to perform a surgery but it’s
markedly more difficult to emotionally
and physically treat a whole person so
if we and nurses and doctors are so set
on fighting a disease let’s light the
toughest of them all the lack of genuine
empathy and compassion that exists not
only in the healthcare field but in the
world because the improvement of the
healthcare system starts with us and
because we all know that our patients
are far more than just bodies [Applause]
it’s not easy to acknowledge humanity
humans are wired to desire emotional
connections with other people but we
often have trouble practicing it so and
one of the best examples of this is the
medical field so I haven’t been a
nursing student for very long just a
little bit over a semester but I’ve been
a part of the healthcare system since I
was born in fact everyone has and
everyone will encounter the healthcare
system at various points in their life
no matter who they are no matter where
you live what you do healthcare
professionals are there so nurses are an
integral part of a person’s life one
would say they’re there for the best and
therefore the worst they see people at
their peak of vulnerability whether it
be the good times or the bad
so Nursing is a profession of deep
connection or at least it’s intended to
be so the ironic part of this is that
the fact that nurses and doctors are
supposed to deeply connect with people
is one of the reasons that the health
care system is so broken we often tend
to treat patients as problems to be
fixed rather than people to be nurtured
we have to come face-to-face with
humanity at its most raw every time we
go to work and it’s hard for us to
separate and connect with our patients
as people because it’s scary because
it’s sad because it’s way easier to
start an IV than it is to hold somebody
when they’re crying and they’ve lost
someone they love so on what we need to
realize is that we aren’t fixing a
problem our job is much more complex
than that
we’re treating a person so treating a
disease is often more convenient than
trying to treat a person because you
don’t have to deal with confronting
humanity doctors shoot their best shots
with medicines and treatments and
they’ve done all they can do but nurses
and doctors aren’t hired to insure
without a shadow of a doubt that their
patients walk out at the hospital alive
our job is to do everything in our power
to take the best care possible of our
patients and not just 6 their symptoms
and to listen to their own desires and
put that at the forefront of their care
Nursing is not an engineering profession
our job is not to fix people and it will
never be to fix people it’s to care for
them and if we focus on caring for
people we automatically give them the
best chance of walking out of the
hospital doors alive fixing the problem
will follow I’m just as guilty of this
dehumanization as anyone else in the
healthcare field whenever somebody asked
me about the uncomfortable tasks that
come with the nursing profession my
general response is oh it’s just a body
so when somebody asks me how I handle
sink naked people all the time my answer
is it’s no big deal it’s just a body but
every time that comes out of my mouth
I’m wrong because patients are far more
than bodies they are parents their
friends their people and their souls
there’s an organization called the cusan
Institute it stands for quality and
safety education for nurses and it
outlines basically the standards for
nursing education across the u.s. so
that we’re all qualified and skilled
enough to work in that environment
one of the six main competencies that
they encourage for us is
patient-centered care which I’m sure if
you’re anywhere in the medical field you
have heard that word a million times
so basically patient-centered care is
why we give report at the bedside of the
patient it’s why we asked about their
hobbies and their culture could cultural
concerns and document it in their health
history it’s why we do almost everything
that we do and what Houston outlines as
a suggestion for nurses to approach
patient-centered care is to value seeing
health care situations through the
patient’s eyes this relates heavily to
the concept of empathy verse sympathy
which once again if you’re a nursing
student it has been beaten into your
head so empathy is basically it’s
feeling what somebody else feels out of
genuine care and compassion for them
it’s not like sympathy which is just
pitying someone so we as nurses need to
stop saying oh I feel so sorry for that
patient that breaks my heart to see them
like that because it’s not about us we
need to practice empathy and say wow I
can feel that that person’s hurting I
need to do anything I can to help them
so it’s kind of I sort of think of
treating patients or talking to patients
a little bit like seeing teachers out in
public it’s a little awkward so like I
know when everyone was in high school
I’m sure you ran into the local grocery
store or the restaurant into your high
school teacher and you want to go talk
to them but you’re also kind of nervous
because it’s like seeing a fish out of
water
you don’t really connect that they have
a life other than teaching you so it’s
kind of like patience when I go in a
patient’s room it’s really hard and
sometimes sort of sad to see that
somebody who can’t even really take care
of themselves a lot of times can’t feed
themselves can’t bathe themselves can’t
move themselves is someone just like me
that has a really important life outside
of the hospital so with the buzz around
patient-centered care what we need to do
is just that we need to assume nothing
and we need to treat our patients as
people and not just a chart we need to
ask our patients what they want when I
was working I went in for Morning Report
and I had a patient with he was in the
process of being diagnosed for
depression with no existing diagnosis
the nurses told me to sort of stay out
of his way because he didn’t really want
to talk to anyone but to sort of watch
for signs and symptoms and he had them
all he was eating almost nothing he
slept every time I went in the room and
I could barely wake him up to even take
his blood pressure but when his lunch
came I asked him if he wanted me to stay
and eat with him or if he wanted me to
step out while he ate and he asked me to
stay and within about 15 minutes or so I
had him smiling and laughing and he ate
a lot more of his lunch than he had been
eating so maybe his issue was lack of
him in connection and maybe it was my
job as the nurse to try just a little
bit harder to get through to him so by
focusing too much on the medical side of
healthcare we’re focusing on a battle we
can’t fight or win at the end of the day
we can’t control the fate of our
patients and we can’t bring anyone we
lose back to life we can’t play God but
we can make the best out of the worst
situation by treating our patients first
for most is people so this
dehumanization that exists in the
healthcare system exists a lot because
of inconvenience
it’s very easy to treat a medical
problem it’s easy to give them medicine
it’s easy to perform a surgery but it’s
markedly more difficult to emotionally
and physically treat a whole person so
if we and nurses and doctors are so set
on fighting a disease let’s light the
toughest of them all the lack of genuine
empathy and compassion that exists not
only in the healthcare field but in the
world because the improvement of the
healthcare system starts with us and
because we all know that our patients
are far more than just bodies [Applause]
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