The nurse explains why her friends often lack empathy

A day in the life of a nurse is a chaos full of new tasks to be completed. It travels the ward 12 times within 157 hours. When he finally sits down, the visits begin. And he hears the ironic: «Oh! They are sitting! ». We talk to Dr. Dorota Kilańska about why it is difficult to be a smiling nurse in Poland.

1. Protests of health care system employees in Poland are announced for September 11
2. Not only nurses, but also paramedics are to strike
3. The situation in the Polish health care system is very bad. And patients suffer from it
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Agnieszka Mazur-Puchała, Medonet: There is a strike of health care system workers ahead of us. I have a feeling that there have been so many strikes in recent years that people are already familiar with them. Is this the moment when the measuring cup has actually changed and there is no return to what was?

Dr Dorota Kilańska, nurse: In general, the patient is the most important in the system and we should do everything to ensure that he or she is looked after. But it cannot be done in such a way that the staff in charge of it does not have the right tools for it. Now it is so that we often have to “shine our eyes” in front of the patient or his family because we are unable to do something. And it’s not our fault. And so we get a message later that we are to blame. These are often organizational issues resulting from years of underinvestment in human resources.

A hospital is no different from a workplace. If we want employees to be effective and customer service at the highest level, then we need to invest in the development of such a company. It cannot be that, for example, in a bank, an employee will not be able to receive a customer or answer a phone. If so, this customer will go to another bank. Of course, the situation in the health care system is so comfortable that the patient has no choice but to use what is there. But for us, people who work in such a “company”, it is extremely frustrating, because we know that we could have a better “offer” for the patient, only the resources and tools are lacking. This leads to dissonance and people burn out and become insensitive.

I often hear that nurses are not empathetic. But if someone went into the hospital and became the shadow of a nurse for one day, he would understand why. He would see what situations she has to face on a daily basis. Some of us have a sick person at home who requires care – a sick child, an elderly parent. Such people know how much the patient care costs and how demanding it is. We have several dozen of such patients in the hospital and one person who takes care of them.

I am very sorry that my friends today found themselves in a situation in which they certainly never wanted to be. They always fought for the patient. If there are more nurses, the patients will just get better. Because someone will always be able to approach them, listen to them and come back in a moment, e.g. with a painkiller. Completely different than now, when it happens that she may come and listen, but will forget to come back, because she will have a few other calls on the way.

Added to this is a hardware problem. Many hospitals in Poland still have beds where nurses have to lift patients by themselves. And these are getting heavier, and the staff, in turn, is getting older and older.

There are many such things that frustrate us. There are always wages on strike banners, but when you are satisfied with your job, you do it with a smile. And he will often do more than enough. This is the case with every job. If the cleaner has a mop that rides better, it will wash more corridors with it and do it faster.

The health care system in Poland has been years of underinvestment and, in fact, the resulting staff shortages. It is true that universities are increasing enrollment in nursing, but who is to teach these students? They have to work alongside someone, learn from someone. We are all very tired already, so I think that now we have come to the wall.

What would have to change now, immediately, for this wall to come down?

I do not know if we can afford such a reform as in Saudi Arabia, i.e. introducing the zero hour and starting all over again with a clean slate. I think that the solution that could help here is the computerization of health care. Then we would know how much, what and where is needed, what is the workload of individual employees, what patients we have and what help they need.

Besides, certainly the equipment of hospitals – staff and equipment are necessary. In addition, a change in the model of patient care. In Poland, there should be interdisciplinary teams that work on a given person. Without dividing into «us» and «you» and haggling over who is the most important in this team. Because we are all needed, and the most important thing is the patient. And for his sake, the staff must get along and respect each other.

This should start at the level of education. This is also the case in other countries. Future doctors, paramedics and nurses sit there in one room, learning to cooperate.

There are really no perfectly functioning systems. There are shortcomings everywhere, something is wrong. Someone once asked me why British nurses go to the US or Canada. They simply have better conditions there. It is natural for a person to look around, analyze and, when he finds that somewhere is better, he can decide to migrate. But the truth is, problems are everywhere. Nurses are also busy in Australia and China. Everywhere.

What we lack the most in Poland is a positive work environment. Remuneration adequate to the work performed. The average salary in our country varies from place to place, it cannot be generalized. Nurses often, due to the fact that they want to live on the same level as the rest of society, undertake additional work. And it happens at a loss for the patient. Such a nurse is not effective. Someone once said that wages in the health care system should grow as it does in society as a whole. So that the nurse can also send the children to summer camps or go on vacation and rest.

What is one day in the life of a nurse like? What tasks does it perform?

This is a photo of our work: a nurse comes to the hospital and receives a report with information about the patients. It starts with improving the quality of life of patients who need it. Some people need to be washed, changed, changed their bedding, bandages, and medications. Some get them before breakfast, others after. There are also injections and drips. In the meantime, a doctor comes with an additional order, followed by another one. So the nurse interrupts what she was doing, because she has to do, for example, blood tests. Then she goes back to what she used to do, but soon someone else has to be given medication, so she goes. When medications are to be administered at 12, they start distributing them before 12 and ends before 14 pm. The patient is sure not to get them perfectly on time. The drug has a specific duration of action, and it is difficult to say if this patient is being treated properly. We are not able to keep track of the time with a watch in our hand.

In the meantime, the bell rings. You go to the patient and see what is happening to him. Sometimes it’s just about helping to change the pillow. But other times you have to see a doctor. Or go back and get your blood pressure tester and have it checked. Or go elsewhere to get pain medication and bring it to the patient. Once someone counted that a nurse travels through the ward 12 times during a 157-hour duty. Please think how many kilometers it is, how much time. And we add that at every point she has to stop, do something, talk.

And after that, the nurse leaves work and goes to the next …

Yes. And that’s something we should fight against. Contracts. They are what causes the maximum amount of energy to be sucked out of people. Because it is known that they will want to earn, so they will also work above the norm. But will the patient benefit from it?

I wonder how patients react to strikes. Do they support the medics or on the contrary?

I think, as you said at the beginning, people just got used to these protests. The form has somehow been overrated. In my opinion, the most important thing is for patients to understand that this is all about them. And most of them really get it.

Let us take into account that if the salaries of the staff are higher, more people willing to work will enter the system. Today, people educated to work in the profession run away from it and engage in something else. It doesn’t have to be that way. In Spain, where salaries have been increased, many men, for example, have entered the system. And they are extremely needed here! There are a number of activities in our profession that require male strength, not a small woman, even if full of good intentions.

For young people, the prospect of graduating from medical studies is not encouraging. You can see people who complete less demanding courses, their work is not that difficult, and their lives are easier. The nurse undertakes a job that is not for everyone. Not everyone would like to help another person who is not always clean, does not always smell good. Sometimes he needs to change his diaper, wash him. It happens that working with one patient takes an hour.

Listening to you makes it easy to see why nurses smile so rarely …

Exactly. How is a tired man supposed to smile? When you have a lot of things to do at home, and you are after a hard day, are you nice and smiling? I don’t think so. We are also angry, angry, we react with aggression because we are unable to cope. And the patients suffer from it. But it is a natural reaction that a stressed, frustrated and exhausted person is aggressive. A nurse I knew once told me that she was afraid to stop in the corridor when the patient was talking to her because he would take so long to not complete her orders. And yet drugs must be given. This is crazy.

And in the minds of people, the nurse sits and drinks coffee.

This is very sad because no one ever asks how much she had to do before to be able to sit down. Nobody sees it. I’ve been a nurse for years and I know what it looks like. You really tried, you did a million things, and when you finally sat down, we would start visiting. And then: «Oh! They are sitting! ». Very sad. If there are two of us in the shift and we run since the morning, it is quite natural that at some point we will be so tired that we will have to sit down for a while. And since we both started at the same time and did practically the same, it will happen at a similar time.

You have to look at everyone working in the health system as human, not cyborg. We also have our limitations, we could also have a sleepless night because the baby was teething or we couldn’t sleep. We may have a stomach ache. It’s normal, only hardly anyone remembers it.

Today, knowing all this, would she decide to study nursing?

Yes of course. I cannot imagine that I could not help another person. And I think many of us have exactly the same. It’s the Samaritan syndrome.

Also read:

1. “The ambulance service in Poland will cease to exist”. All the rescuers threw their papers
2. How Much Do Nurses Earn? The head of the unions comments on the words of a spokesman for the Ministry of Health about 6,5 thousand. nursing salary
3. Nurses were nuns and prostitutes. Thanks to her, there have been changes
4. Nurse: President Duda’s statement knocked me off my feet
5. “There are no more things that I would not do.” Nurse working in intensive care

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