Are You Working In Faith Or Fear?
When we were living in caves thousands of years ago, there was a real fear of becoming an animal’s main dinner entrée. When faced with that possibility, the fight or flight response kicked in.
But today, while we can feel safe in our homes, we still can push the so-called panic button for any fear response any time we want.
I call “fear” false evidence appearing real because there is relatively little to fear in our lives today. But most of us are pushing the panic button all the time and making decisions out of fear.
In nursing, we’re afraid of being fired or written up. We worry we might be black-listed, lose our job or that we may be reported to the Nursing Board. And the fears go on and on.
When I was practicing, I found one patient with a colostomy that was hooked up backwards. The distal side was hooked to the ostomy and the proximal end was sewn shut. I remember being admonished to say nothing to the patient who assumedly went in for an exploratory laparotomy for repair.
I felt so bad for the patient and wondered why the physician would not just be honest with the patient. But, like a good nurse, I kept my mouth shut! I was afraid of getting into trouble had I said anything
In another recollection, there was a surgeon we called “the Mark of Zorro” because his patients invariably would suffer complications. He had the highest complication rate of all the surgeons but, again, I was afraid to say anything for fear of repercussions, losing my job or worse, being reported to the State Board of Nursing.
I regret not having spoken up at those times. I don’t know how many patients could have been spared complications and pain had I only said something. My cop out, if you will, was that it was always the responsibility of someone else; not mine. I was not being the source of patient safety in my practice.
As I matured, I realized that I needed to speak my truth as well as moving forward in faith and courage rather than fear. I needed to make decisions from faith knowing that things are put in my path for the right reasons and things will work out as they should.
I now know that I can say things in a positive way that does not appear to be confrontational or complaining. I also can approach problems with solutions.
What if I had said to management, “You know, if we were a patient here, we would want to know the truth. Is there any way you could talk to the physician to have him be honest with the patient?” Or “I know the surgeon has a high number of complications but is there any way that we can help to decrease that to have better patient outcomes?” I, for one, would want to know the truth about my care and whether my doctor had a high complication rate.
Doing things in a caring way, using our GIFTS (see previous articles), makes a big difference in the outcome of how we speak our mind. And, for me, at least I know I would be living in my truth.
It is going to take nurses everywhere to stand up and speak their minds in order for these and other problems to be resolved. So, know that you can’t create change without being in faith and taking chances. After all, living safe isn’t really living and could be doing a disservice to our patients.
