Tag: work

On Being an Academic Nurse

When I began my PhD I felt the need to be cautious about telling people that I was doing it. Luckily I worked with super supportive colleagues and they never made me feel like I was weird or not a “real” nurse because of my interest in research. In fact, many of them were more than willing to share their experience, wisdom, and insights with me when we worked together. I may not have 20 years of nursing experience but I am a hard worker and a caring nurse who is willing to help others and pull my share. I absolutely loved my time working in geriatric rehab as a staff nurse. There were times when I considered quitting the PhD and staying on there instead. I didn’t leave direct care nursing because I didn’t like it. I didn’t leave because I’m afraid of hard work. Or shift work. Or working holidays.

I’m not quite sure what people think academic nurses do but I honestly cannot remember the last time I took an entire 24 hours off from work. I think it was in May? In addition to teaching, research, and service requirements of most faculty, nursing faculty at many schools (mine included) also teach clinical nursing courses. This term I’m teaching second year students in the hospital which means not only 2-3 full shifts in the hospital every week but tons and tons of prep, organizing, evaluation, and follow-up with students. This is not like a lab where they are practicing on mannequins; they are working with real-life patients who are sick. They are interacting with nurses and physicians. Expectations and anxiety are high. I feel like a mother hen trying to protect them while at the same time give them learning opportunities and reasonable autonomy. Teaching clinical is rewarding in many ways but it is one of the most stressful things I have ever done.

I am also a course assistant for the nursing research course and need to prepare to teach a new-to-me course next semester. On top of this I have also been trying to establish my program of research, attend the meetings I need to go to, and get to a stack of article revisions and new submissions. I took a day trip to Ottawa for a conference between clinical days and it was awesome but also exhausting. Somehow I have managed to still spend quality time with my son, work out at least 3 times/week (although Thursday’s “workout” mostly involved staring blankly at the barbell trying to convince myself that it was workout time), and always have some (mostly) healthy food and clean laundry. It’s the small wins, right?

This is not the life I envisioned 11 months ago when I accepted this job. After working and going to school for a million years I thought it would finally be different. I thought I’d have time to have a life but the reality is that I am working constantly. I thought I’d love being closer to home but it’s not really close enough that I can see my family and friends very often. It’s not super helpful when I want to go do something either (“Hey, dad, can you drive 5 hours and babysit while I go to a movie?”).

It’s not all bad of course; I really love a lot of things about my job. I’m just not sure that I want my life to be my job. I realize that the transition to new job in a new province and a new city is a huge adjustment and that it will get easier as time goes on. My first term has been full of many wonderful things and a couple of not-so-awesome things. Highlights include the joy of seeing nursing students grow and learn, interacting with patients and their families and the staff on the unit, and being part of some inspiring research projects. The best thing of all has been looking at the stars with my son on those early mornings before clinical. In the quiet darkness before sunrise we get to share the awe and peace of the night sky together before the busyness of the day begins. These are the moments I cherish most.

 

 

Thoughts about Nurses and Strength Training

Nurses are a valuable part of our health care system and we work very hard to deliver good patient care.  As a profession we sometimes get a bad rap for not being exemplars of health because some nurses are overweight.  I would like to change the channel on this discussion and approach this issue from a different perspective.  Health is more than just looking good and being fit has important implications for the nursing workforce and healthcare generally.

First of all, body composition is only one component of being healthy.  Hopefully by now you know about the “skinny fat” phenomenon and why being thin doesn’t necessarily mean you are healthy.  On the flip side, I don’t think that people should use this an excuse to overeat.  I encourage us to embrace a more holistic view of health and well-being rather than simply judging nurses’ health based on their appearance.

Secondly, the nursing profession is predominantly made up of women (many of whom are aging) which is important for a few reasons. 

1. The Western cultural ideal of what women should look like influences the standard against which women are measured.  Most nurses are women so therefore some people judge nurses’ “health” based on how well they meet this ideal.  Again, you cannot tell solely by appearances how healthy someone is. 

2. Women and men have different hormones which, like it or not, influences our body fat levels.  Women are supposed to have more fat than men and as we get older (which many nurses are), we tend to put on weight because of changes in our hormones.  

3. Women have been fed a lot of BS about fitness and nutrition.  This ties into my point about the Western beauty ideal.  I find it shocking that I still meet so many women who are afraid of lifting weights because they think it will make them “look like a man” or who spend hours doing cardio and counting calories in their fat free asparatame-filled cancer-causing diet “foods” that have pretty much no nutritional value.  While this may come across as being a little harsh, I want to make it clear that I don’t blame women entirely for buying into the propaganda that has been fed to them for years.  There are tremendous rewards for those who live up to conventional beauty standards so how do you blame people for wanting to be successful, even if many of us don’t agree with the definition of “success” that has been handed to us?

At any rate, I think we do a very good job as women of being mean to each other and I think that needs to stop.  Be a beauty – there is nothing wrong with that if that is what you want.  However, you are more than just a beautiful object to look at!  You can be beautiful and strong and smart and whatever you want.  Sometimes it seems like there is this idea that you can only be one or the other – that beautiful women are stupid or that intelligent women don’t care about their physical appearance.  I don’t think I need to point out how naïve and simplistic these assumptions are.

So why am I talking about beauty in a post about fitness anyway?  Well I believe that many women steer clear of strength training because they think it will sacrifice their beauty.  In other words, if a woman thinks that lifting weights will make her look masculine, she will avoid doing it. 

So what? 

Well, as I mentioned, most nurses are women so this has some implications for our profession.  Nursing work can be very physical at times and requires a high capacity to do work.  Many of us work busy 12 hour shifts and help turn, stand, transfer, and walk patients throughout the day.   Back and shoulder injuries are common among nurses in addition to high levels of stress and burnout.  Being fit and strong can help increase our work capacity, prevent injuries, and improve work recovery.  Increasing our physical strength and endurance can help make our jobs (and lives) easier to handle, provide us with more energy, improve our personal health, help us manage stress, and improve our physical appearance.   With so much to gain, what are we waiting for?