Nursing the Nation and the World

Nurses are everywhere. They are legion. The ubiquitous nurse is present in the care of children, the elderly, the disabled, and the dying. Nurses don ' t shy away from responsibility — they embrace it. Nurses run towards the metaphorical fire. Just as firefighters rush into burning buildings and police officers run towards the active shooter, nurses don their gloves and deal with the sputum, the blood, the pus, the emesis, the feces, and the urine — body fluids be damned, th ere ' s work to do and nurses do it. The Ubiquitous NurseWhere would the country be without nurses? Without nurses, the healthcare system would essentially grind to a halt. We call nurses the lifeblood of healthcare, and they ' re also the connective tissue and the veritable mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses of the delivery of patient care. But nurses are more than that. Ask most members of the public, the media, and even legislative bodies, and they ' ll tell you that nurses take care of sick people in hospitals. However, if only 55 percent of nurses work in acute care facilities, there ' s a whole lot more that they do. Hospitals are crucial, of course, but there ' s more to nursing than units like the ED, the ICU, med-surg, and telemetry. Nurses nurse the nation in schools, dialysis centers, assisted living, nursing homes, home health, hospice, and public health. Nurses case manage patients with tuberculosis, fulfill critical roles in patient transportation and life flight, and ...
Source: Digital Doorway - Category: Nursing Source Type: blogs