Asking For Help: Is A Strength, NOT A Weakness
Asking For Help: Is A Strength, NOT A Weakness
So many times in nursing, we hear all of the individual tasks we must do on any given day as nurses. YOU hand out these meds; YOU take this patient here or there, YOU bathe the patient, YOU have an admission. I often hear so many new or even experienced nurses talk about the "weight" they feel having for 12 hours straight, 3-5 days a week. We feel overwhelmed, scared, angry, and most of all, alone. I am slowly learning as a new grad; we do not have to feel this way! There are SO many tools, resources, and most of all, our peers to assist us daily in the numerous tasks and skills we must perform.
Now, this is something I struggled with, especially as a student! I felt like I was burdening the nurse, asking too much of them, distracting them from what they needed to do. But one thing I was told by a very knowledgeable nurse, "If you do not ask, you will never learn if you do not know how to ask! You will learn something new, and we would rather you ask than make a fatal mistake." Wow! From that day forward, I never hesitated to ask a question, ask to watch them perform a skill I had never seen. I rarely heard no, and the cases I did hear were simply a timing issue or an emergency, or a procedure that I needed to maybe stand to the side and just watch. Which again, still a learning opportunity, and I was able to ask questions about things I saw or what was happening after. Win-win either way!
Nursing is a field like I have mentioned in previous blogs of perfectionism. We want to be our best and do our best always for our patient's benefit. With that comes a sense of taking everything personally and constantly feeling we have to do it alone since they are our patients, right? WRONG! Asking for help is in no way a weakness but more a strength. It shows that you want to learn and that you want to do the best job for that patient and give them the best care possible. So yes, sometimes this does require asking for help and assistance. Your patients will thank you!
Written by: Haley Goff
Instagram: nursehaleyy
