Being a nurse can sometimes feel like a much ignored, thankless profession. When you get down, these motivational nurse quotes can remind you why you chose the career!
It is inexplicable that there are people who look down on nursing and nurses as somehow being an inferior piece of the puzzle that makes up the healthcare industry. The too often held preconceived notion nurses exist to be little more than a supplement to doctors is not only inaccurate, but insulting. It is also untrue that nurses chose that path because it is easier than being a doctor. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you ask a nurse why they entered nursing, they will tell you something along the lines of it is because they believe in what they are doing. They genuinely care about people and want to help them. It has nothing to do with overcoming irrational assumptions about their profession or trying to gain the approval of others by proving people wrong regarding the abilities of nurses. They don’t have time for such pettiness.
While some still scoff and claim that society will never perceive nurses as an integral part of the healthcare system on a par with doctors, they are wrong!. Although slow, perceptions are changing. Nurses are, for many, the person they turn to and trust regarding many of their care decisions – and no surprise, since a patient will spend more time with nurses than doctors.
Doctors and nurses are not in competition with each other; they work together. They make up a care team. Each is highly important in their own way, and those that fail to see this fail to understand this do so at their own peril.
The title of nurse is a badge of honor, to be worn with pride. It is the chosen few that can discharge their duties daily with a high level of professionalism, care, and compassion in the face of what is often seeing people at their worst The impact that nurse`s make on the lives of patients is incalculable. Nurses are the cornerstone of effective health care.
Here are several quotes we have compiled from articles and blog posts demonstrating the power of nurses and nursing. These are the people that are always there when we need them. They are the frontline of our care system. For that, we honor them!
According to Kateri; a Blog
“I am a Nurse. I didn’t become a nurse because I couldn’t cut it in med school, or failed organic chemistry, but rather because I chose this. I work to maintain my patient’s dignity through intimate moments, difficult long term decisions, and heartbreaking situations. I share in the joy of newly born babies and miraculously cured diseases. I share in the heart break of a child taken too soon, a disease too powerful, a life changed forever. My patient is often an entire family. I assess and advocate. Sometimes I wipe bottoms, often I give meds, but that isn’t the extent of what I do. There are people above me, and people below. I work closely with both, without them, I could not do what I do well. I chose this profession and love almost every minute of it. I know I am not alone and I appreciate all of the nurses who work alongside me. Many of them have shaped me into the nurse I am. Someday I will shape others into the nurse they will be. This wasn’t my plan B, it was my plan A, and I would gladly choose it again.”
Kateri Allard, RN, BSN, “Just a Nurse”
http://accordingtokateri.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kateri.allard
https://twitter.com/kateriallard
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateri-allard-9b59a456
Practical Nursing
“As nurses we know suffering. We are fully aware of how precious each moment of life is. We learn to live well.
Nurses are grateful people. Some people only learn about these essential spiritual qualities from traditions of worship. We learn compassion, love, peace and more by performing our daily work.
Nurses are constantly reminded of the necessity of valuing the dignity and worth of every person. As a result, we become better people. Our souls are healed. We develop communication skills and open hearts which make us more loving members of our own families. We become tolerant, and appreciate the diversity of all of the people on this earth. Perhaps that is the biggest benefit of being nurses. We become more caring, and honorable people.”
– Patricia Bratianu, PhD, RN, RH-AHG, “Advantages of Being a Nurse”
http://www.practicalnursing.org/
https://www.facebook.com/practicalnursingorg
https://twitter.com/LPNLVN
https://plus.google.com/115129905799064815234/posts
Nursing Crib
“Nurses are just second to doctors, they are just assistants and can’t function without doctors”. Yeah, yeah. That is the common notion of the public, however, as much as we rely on doctor’s orders for some interventions we need to perform such as medications and invasive procedures, we also have our INDEPENDENT roles, we also get to make our own NURSING DIAGNOSES. The negative perception is often due to some nurses acting like those: like robots waiting for a physician’s order to move. Instead of confirming the perception, let us prove to them that they are not right. Like doctors, we have served years of health education, and passed the boards to practice in this profession. We are professionals too, let us act like one.”
– Liane Clores, RN, “Nursing Reality”
http://nursingcrib.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NursingCrib/
https://twitter.com/nursingcrib
https://plus.google.com/+nursingcrib/posts
Rasmussen College
“The phenomenon of the nurse-patient relationship and its ability to affect the overall treatment of a patient is a central topic to the studying of nursing. The focus is usually on the ability of the nurse to impact the patient, but we often forget how much the patient can impact the nurse.”
– Katy Katz, MBA, “Why I’m Becoming a Nurse: One Student’s Revelations on the Nurse-Patient Relationship”
http://www.rasmussen.edu/
https://www.facebook.com/Nursing.school/
https://twitter.com/NursingProgram
https://www.linkedin.com/company/rasmussen-college
https://plus.google.com/+rasmussencollege/posts
Scrubs Magazine
“Last year, I had a patient who spent a long time in our unit with a life-threatening illness. The patient and his family were determined to beat the illness, pushing for only the best outcome. I shared with them that we work for the best outcome and nothing less, but that the most important part of our work is about more than outcomes – it’s about those moments when the patient, family and care team are all working together seamlessly, dedicated to healing. This is why I come to work every day.”
– Erika Kimball, RN, BSN, How One Nurse is Transforming Her Hospital into a “Green Zone”
http://scrubsmag.com/
https://www.facebook.com/scrubsmagazine
https://twitter.com/scrubsmagazine
American Holistic Nurses Association
“Let’s start with the first benefit to nursing: Altruism – the unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness. Nurses help people. It’s that simple. In 2012, nurses once again appeared at the top of Gallup’s annual survey of “Most Trusted Professions.” The perception of our profession is that we care in many different forms of that word… Nurses help people. And in doing so, we receive the unmatched satisfaction of knowing that we have made a difference to patients and their families.”
– Dawn Marino, RN, BSN, HNB-BC, Why Did You Become a Nurse?
http://www.ahna.org/
https://www.facebook.com/TheAmericanHolisticNursesAssociation
https://twitter.com/OfficialAHNA
https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-holistic-nurses-association
Johns Hopkins Medicine
“Nursing is going to become even more important in the coming years. That’s because health care systems throughout the world are gradually shifting attention towards models that do more to prevent and manage cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases that are best dealt with in patients before they require hospitalization. Nurses will play an enormous role in these lower-cost, higher-touch, prevent-and-manage models, because the emphasis will be one more frequent bust less intense levels of care that call for coaching, outreach and simple patient self-measurements like blood pressure – routines that often don’t require much physician involvement. And as nursing continues to grow higher-level, more specialized branches, the way that physician practice has, nurses will increasingly take over many diagnostic and treatment tasks. It’s just one more reason to assign nursing such a high priority.”
– Steve Thompson, Senior Vice President of Johns Hopkins Medicine, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, Why I Can’t Say Enough about the Importance of Nursing
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Johns.Hopkins.Medicine
https://twitter.com/hopkinsmedicine
https://www.linkedin.com/company/johns-hopkins-medicine
https://plus.google.com/+HopkinsmedicineOrg/about
Nursetopia
“The longer I’m in the profession, the more experiences shape my life, the more amazing colleagues influence me, the more I see the micro and macro power of nursing.”
– Joni Watson, MBA, MSN, RN, OCN, For the Love of Nursing
http://nursetopia.net/
https://www.facebook.com/Nursetopia
https://twitter.com/joniwatson
The Nerdy Nurse
“Nursing is great for so many reasons, but there is one reason that means more than any poll results, amount of money, or job security: Nurses make a difference.”
– Brittney Wilson, RN, BSN, Why Become a Nurse?
http://thenerdynurse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdyNurse
https://twitter.com/thenerdynurse
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittneywilson
https://plus.google.com/+BrittneyWilson/posts
NurseTogether.com
“As nurses, we accomplish great deeds for our patients. From offering a patient level explanation of a medical procedure to restarting a stopped heart, we make a difference every single day. When my daughter was in high school, she often watched the TV show ER. After one particular episode, she announced to my wife and I that she was going to go to medical school and become a doctor. I have no problem with that at all. She followed that statement by saying that it must feel great to save someone’s life. I looked at my wife (also a nurse), and we smiled at each other. I said, “Yes, it is a great feeling.”
– Donald Wood, 4 Words That Should Make All Nurses Mad
http://www.nursetogether.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Nursetogether.Community
https://twitter.com/NurseTogether