An essay that describes the dilemma of the Nursing profession , why there is an ongoing shortage of qualified nurses, how the work is so often unrecognized and why the profession is considered to be on the endangered list. (Gordon)

The Stigma of Sickness

Gordon claims that all too often patients either overlook or ignore the vital contribution made by their nurses. They are quick to acclaim the success of the Doctors who carried out their life saving operation and ready to share this with colleagues and friends. All too often they forget that it was the nurse who had to deal with many of the more unpleasant tasks and was the person that nursed them back to health. Even though the nurses are part of the patients life support system during illness, patients quickly want to forget and rid themselves of the memory. Nurses are so often associated with trivial tasks that their true skills are so often overlooked. The nurses ability to deal with traumatised patients handling both their anxieties and fears. The intimate care that nurses provide to those patients facing life threatening situations.

Gordon cites a number of reasons for this lack of recognition of nurses:

• Nurses cushion the frailties of human beings; those issues of sickness that invoke fear, pain and loss of control. Adults hate being reminded of their mortality and fragile grasp on life. They find this difficult to tolerate and equally less willing to share the discomfort that the nurse helped them with.
• Doctors and Surgeons are seen as the “front office” and the skills that save human life. Little acknowledgement is made of the “back office” and all that goes into the recuperative process. It is clear that the nurses have a far more intimate relationship with the patients than the surgeons or doctors. It is this intimacy that brings the patient closer to their own mortality and even in extreme cases of terminal patients the nurses help them with dignity and care.
• The fact that nurses deal with menial tasks contrasts to the sophisticated clinical aspects of their work that often goes overlooked. Nurses go through an advanced form of medical training that requires subject matter expertise and expert judgement. All too often this view is negated inn favour of a menial technician supporting the more senior medical staff.
• We fail to acknowledge the hands on care that enables nurses to study the patients physical condition which both allows them to save lives and determine when conditions are right to help patients prepare for death.

Weighting the evidence in Gordon’s argument

One of the most compelling arguments is where nurses are involved in special treatment units like Cancer Care centers. Nurses here are providing a high level of specialist clinical care. Nurses in European centres say that they are not being provided with the recognition and rewards that this special care entails. They state it is at the most severe in terms of payment and status of work. It has been suggested that in order to elevate such status they require specialist qualifications beyond the basic Registered Nurse qualifications. The counter argument is if the nurses attained such qualifications will the medical profession recognise this and make the necessary changes. As to date there is no indication that this is the case. (Kearney)

There is generally a lack of nursing recognition where this involves the practice of ” continuing care” and the longer term nursing of the elderly. Nurses themselves are perceived to lack “assertion and articulation” skills that promote their values and thereby promote their recognition to others. There is also little evidence to suggest that general nursing training prepares them for this specialised form of nursing care. Nurses tend to build on their core academic skills by learning new skills in this practical setting. This in turn goes largely unrecognised because there is no formal certification. (Hazel B. M. Heath)

It is true to say that since the time of Florence Nightingale nurses have produced some amazing feats of work. Despite that fact they are seldom recognized or celebrated in any way ” The world recognizes extraordinary human achievement with the awarding of six Nobel Prizes, including the 2006 Prize in Physiology or Medicine. No nurse has ever won. That is appropriate, because nursing, while closely related to medicine, is a distinct health science. However, there is no Nobel Prize or comparable annual award (such as a Templeton Prize or a Fields Medal) in nursing. There should be. Nurses deserve such international recognition. Alfred Nobel’s will provided for prizes to those who had “conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” (Gebbie and Summers). In this sense the nursing profession is somewhat lacking in lobbying for special awards for recognition of its most outstanding members of the profession and indeed promoting the nursing profession at large. The nursing profession can do much to help itself in this regard by increased promotion of its members and the vital service it provides to the community at large.