A favorite saying that stays with me from childhood, and one which I hear ringing in my ears every time I attempt a difficult task, and would be careless and present it in a haphazard fashion is, “shortcut draw blood”. My mother would never allow us to do anything in an abbreviated fashion, “If you a do it, do it well” she insisted. We would be required to do it over, and over, until Mama was satisfied that it was well done.
I try to use this same strategy with my own children who are of another generation, and probably will not understand until they get to adulthood, and have children of their own, who they want to encourage in achieving excellence.
I want to also here advocate that nurses do it well, whether they are doing a basic procedure that they do over and over, is having a bad day at work, spending time with a family whose loved one is taking the last breath, or spending time with a new hire or student who needs to be mentored.
Too often nurses do things the abbreviated way, because they fail to realize that you do not get the same results, when you do not spend the time required to ensure the task in completed well. One’s commitment to excellence is pivotal as a nurse, since what we do is all about saving lives.
Guilty as charged! With the focus being removed from spending time at the bedside, to the need for an increase in the average daily census and an improvement in efficiency in terms of the financial outlook of the institution; the workload has therefore grown exponentially. Nurses are therefore distressed at the tasks they are required to complete in their twelve hour shift.
This I want to remind myself of in my administrative role that I too can help nurses “do it well” by taking the focus back to the patients.
Mama, oh how I wish I could “do it well”.
