What is a Paulinian nurse? A colleague once told me that a nurse is a nurse, no matter what. That may be true up to a certain extent. Also, I am not insinuating that we are better than others in any way. However, in the light of this week, being Holy Week, I want to honor my Paulinian roots which make me the nurse that I am today.

By the way, here is the link to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Uh1L3MGMLT1O7MveagzW1?si=24ed354ba3014d21

Guided by our Paulinian motto which is:

The love of Christ impels us

we are a service-driven bunch whose inspiration continues to be the Life and Works of Jesus Christ.

Credits to the students, faculty, staff, leadership of the College of Nursing from the St. Paul University Iloilo, and the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC) sisters for this video and the featured image. Caritas Christi Urget Nos.

A Paulinian Nurse is…

• Compassionate

Our Christo-centric education has emphasized that we minister to the sick and those needing our care the way Christ did. We are to look into each one of those patients and clients in the image and likeness of Christ.

As such, we don’t treat patients according to their respective diagnoses. Rather, we assess and appropriately address their holistic needs be they physical, mental, emotional, or even spiritual. We believe that we have to address all factors that contribute to the patient’s or the client’s current state and mitigate as much as our professional capability allows us.

http://pexels-kampus-production-8949913

• Respectful

Respect, sadly, is lacking in healthcare these days. In this current healthcare milieu wherein the “I am better than thou” attitude is widespread, we are in desperate need of mutual respect. Respect is not only extended to patients but also to colleagues.

• • Respect for patients

James mentioned in a Harvard article in 2018 that a lack of respect for patients could be as grand as not involving them in planning for their care. Or could be as simple as not acknowledging or saying hello to them. As healthcare workers, we have the responsibility to incorporate patients’ preferences when we take care of them. Regardless of the fact that those preferences or ideas may be different than our own. This points back to the fact that we honor the dignity of each of the clients we encounter at any stage of our career.

• • Respect for Colleagues

Most nurses are familiar with the line:

Nurses eat their young

What this means is that there is a lack of respect, for lack of a better word, in the nursing profession. It is basically the bullying of younger nurses by the more experienced ones either overtly or subtly. Bullying transcends age, race, gender, and other demographics. In a nutshell, it wreaks havoc on the morale not only of the demeaned colleague but of the workplace as a whole.

As a Paulinian nurse, each of us has been trained to listen and pay attention to the needs of the people we come across. Our Gracious Living classes provided us with opportunities to appropriately express ourselves in any situation, either work-related or social settings.

http://pexels-rfstudio-3810795

• Honest and Empathetic

Closely associated with respect are honesty and empathy. An honest and empathetic person, or healthcare worker for that matter, understands the other person’s predicament. He or she is sensitive to the needs of others, and without judgment, is able to find ways to help out.

These attributes are tested whenever a nurse has to deliver a piece of bad news to a patient or the family. Personally speaking, my oncology experience has helped me hone my empathy and honesty. There were times at that point in my career wherein the doctors have to share that a loved one’s cancer was incurable. I used very few words but have held so many hands in silence to assure my patients that I empathized with what they were going through.

• Flexible

Early on in our Paulinian education, we learned that we have to be flexible according to the needs of the unit or the patients. We were taught the importance of being open and responsive to the demands of the times. Our core values allow us to adapt and evolve without losing our Paulinian identity. It is for this reason that we thrive in any setting we are placed in. We would much prefer to be experts in a few fields but we welcome opportunities to float to other units or settings as a chance to become well-rounded nurses.

• A Good Team Player

I will credit our team nursing experiences back in college as to why we are good team players. Vividly, I can still recall that as a team, we were running the show even if we were still in our third year of nursing school. We considered our Clinical Instructors and the staff nurses in the hospitals where we had our clinicals as resources. That interdependence amongst each other helped us cultivate self-confidence and reliance that the whole team got each other’s backs.

• Not Afraid to Lead

This is also related to the cohesive teams that we formed during our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) days. We took turns to lead the group, so it is but a natural progression that we lead teams in our respective careers as well.

For a newbie nurse, it is a daunting task to lead indeed. However, it is a matter of knowing what kind of team you are a part of and how are you able to manage the members who are each unique.

During the very first meeting I conducted as the Shared Governance Unit Council Chair, I passed out papers to the members. They were to write three things that they like about the person whose name was on the top of the paper. Whenever we had difficulties or disagreements, we pulled up those papers to check on what we liked about each other. That helped us refocus on the fact that our disagreements were temporary and that we remained united in achieving our common goal as a unit. That was also one of the reasons why we had a 100% passing rate in our Certified Pediatric Nursing certification examination.

http://pexels-pixabay-256417

• Always Willing to Learn (and Teach)

Speaking of examinations, a Paulinian nurse never passed up opportunities to learn either formally or through experiences. As lifelong learners, we relish every chance we get to get to know the newest in evidence-based practice or in healthcare technology. We attend conferences, pursue higher education, and enjoy the company of our colleagues in sponsored lunch and learn events.

On the flip side, we pay that learning forward by teaching others. It may be because we have education units included in our curriculum. However, I think that it is just the innate willingness to share. This might be tied to Luke 6:45 which states that

From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh

• Helpful, but Also Asks for Help When Needed

This is closely tied to the team mentality that one extends help when needed. Also, there must be no hesitation to ask for help when the situation warrants it. This is especially true if one is taking care of a patient with an uncommon diagnosis, for example. Or maybe it is learning about a new tech tool in practice. We are not all-around experts so help given and help received are expected daily.

• Competent and Innovative

We are very confident, without being boastful about it, of our competence. Our theoretical and practical knowledge and skills are rooted in years of evidence-based research and best practices. We should celebrate that.

With that being said, we also find ourselves sometimes finding alternatives on how to address current patient needs. I will go back again to my days when I had to modify common and available resources to provide a colostomy bag or a chest tube bottle for my patients. They were not ideal but at that moment and time, they were all that the patients could afford.

Innovation in a first-world country does not have the same meaning in developing countries. In the former, it is about bringing the newest health information technology devices to practice. In the latter, however, it means utilizing whatever is available for purposes they may not have been originally intended for but will suffice as an affordable option.

• Family-oriented

Holistic care is included in the first point above. Part of providing holistic care is involving the family. This is to customize care according to each patient’s needs. For example, diabetic patient A may have completely different needs than patient B who also has diabetes despite the similarity in diagnosis. A Paulinian nurse, especially those practicing in the Philippines, involves the families in planning for their care.

Actually, families take charge of the bedside needs of the patients in the Philippines. They ask for the directions of the healthcare members on how they can get involved. As nurses, they act as coordinators of care among clinicians and other stakeholders.

http://pexels-pixabay-2133

Final Words

As we reflect on Christ’s passion and resurrection this Holy Week, I can honestly think that our shared journey as nurses may be like that. Sometimes, we go through challenges, either individually or collectively, like the RaDonda Vaught trial for example. Hopefully, as we go through the dark periods of nursing from time to time, we also share in Christ’s resurrection. Whatever that means to the profession still remains to be seen.

What about you? What are your reflections regarding the nursing profession relative to the Holy Week?