People have many preconceived notions of nursing, but what is a nurse?

We are so many things. We are professionals, we are leaders, and we are highly educated and credentialed. We care for more than the disease, we care for the whole person. We are a group of individuals from many backgrounds compelled to be caregivers and patient advocates. We work under a code of ethics that makes us one of the most deeply trusted professions that exist.
We are the eyes, ears, hands, and heart of healthcare. We are at your bedside at birth, throughout life, and in death. We provide compassionate caring one minute and the next minutes do compressions to save a patient’s life. A wise clinical instructor once said that people come to a hospital not to be treated by doctors but to be cared for by a nurse.
But we are not just in the hospital. Our practice areas are diverse.
Nurses provide care in homes, schools, and shelters. We are on the other end of the phone when you call ask-a-nurse. Nurse midwives deliver your babies. Nurse anesthetists provides anesthesia for your procedure. Nurse practitioners are your primary care providers. We are health industry advisors. We work in pharmaceutical research. We are legal consultants. We are comprehensive health leaders and advocates.
There are 7.12 billion people on Earth who all will need health care at some point in their lives. Nurses provide 90% of healthcare worldwide (Davis, 2012). That’s an astounding number!
Why should you care about nurses? Without nurses, healthcare is non-existent in many places. Many countries face critical shortages of nurses. Without nurses, there may be no one to care for you or your loved one when they are ill. Nurses will care about you regardless of your background, nationality, race, gender, identification, and history.
Help enact legislation to regulate safe nurse-patient ratios, laws that make it illegal to assault a nurse, and legislation to help pay student loans for nurses so that we can educate the next generation of nurses without the burden of debt.
Please be a nursing advocate. Support nurses.
Amanda J.
Reference: Davis, S. (2012). Why nurses are the unsung heroes of global health. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-davis-dnp-anpbc-faan/international-nurses-week_b_1499802.html