Nursing Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Bodhi Health Education

“Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you if that would save you”

These lines are from a poem “The Wound-Dresser” by Walt Whitman who wrote this poem when he was serving as a volunteer nurse during American civil war.

Nursing is considered to be the topmost ethical profession of all. From the earliest type of nursing to the modern type, this profession has always been considered a self-sacrificing but noble job.

When a person gets sick and goes to the hospital for treatment, it is not only the mastery of the doctor who treats the patient but also the virtuosity of the nursing staff who takes complete care of the patient from his/her personal hygiene to medication and food.

We talked to Binu Sharma, Vice president, nursing services, Columbia Asia Hospitals, about her life and experiences as a nurse.

There can be different reasons for one to enter this profession. For Binu, it was her own personality which was more of a people’s person that led her into nursing. When she did her graduation in statistics, there were only numbers and data but no people connect. The craving to do something different and exacting made her take up nursing.

Professional career

According to her, one more thing that made her stick to the profession for the period of almost three and a half decade was that she initially joined nursing training in army setup and was impressed a lot by the nurses and army officers. Binu served the Indian Army in the capacity of a nursing officer for two decades handling clinical and administrative responsibilities. She specialized in Critical Care Nursing while in the Army. Binu states with pride in her voice that no other health care professional can do, what a nurse does for a patient.

what is it that makes it one of the most challenging jobs of all times.

Then what is it that makes it one of the most challenging jobs of all times. Answers Binu Sharma, a nursing leader, in a very firm yet cultivated manner, “the compensation structure for nurses is not good especially in India which leads to low motivation and also there is not much of social recognition and it gets tough for female nurses to manage work, home, family at the same time.”
Then why would one go for nursing?

No challenge is big enough to stop you from doing something you want to do and have your heart in, says Binu. There needs to be a self-challenge of being outstanding at everything you do, otherwise, you would not rise. Obviously, there are challenges like managing kids and family with work, but if you love your job then these challenges are no big deal. And women are very strong personalities that are capable of managing home, work and the entire society.

Misconception about nursing

Binu tells us about a major misconception about the nursing profession. It needs to be mentioned specifically that nursing is not only about cleaning up patient’s bed and mattresses and maintaining patient’s personal hygiene, it is a lot more than that. But maintaining personal hygiene of patient is also an important part of patient care. The new generations should not think that this work is not befitting their job profile.

Perks of the profession according to Binu are many. She says, “Nursing as a profession requires a lot of physical stamina, mental endurance, and social sacrifice but at the same time gives you job satisfaction in helping people get better in health. Also managing critical patients is the key to self-achievement. There you get to see different disease profiles, and interact with complexities which help you improve your work.”

Patient care management

For a nurse to be optimally efficient and effective in patient care management, it is very important that the whole team works in coordination. Binu emphasizes on the team’s importance, “Patient care is not a one person’s job. A patient comes for treatment from a doctor. So, the doctor and the nurse are the central points of management. The other services like pharmacy, laundry and linen and security has to hover around the patient, doctor, and nurse.

The best way to manage this relationship is that the doctor and nurses should be 100 percent supported by the other services in the hospital.” It is of utmost significance that a nurse has good communication skills and interpersonal relationship and at the same time have trust in people from other services, added Binu.

Binu Sharma shared with us some events of her nursing life which made her feel even more contented for choosing to nurse as a career.

Touching nursing story

One case she mentions specifically when she was a young ICU nurse. During her shift in the ICU, she came across a 16-17 years old boy with some general orthopedic surgery, in a gasping state. The boy got a cardiac arrest. There were no other team members available in the ICU at that moment. Binu had not given CPR before that situation, but she had the confidence to do it and save a life. But that day, she managed to start CPR and resuscitate the patient. Parents of that boy thanked Binu and said that she was a god for them to save their only child’s life.

This story is enough to realize how one timely action by a nurse can save a life and change the lives of the whole family.

Experience shared as a role of administrator

Now in the role of an administrator, Binu’s motivation comes from the young nurses, whom she can train and show right direction and keep motivated. Binu says that she always meet the nurses during the training classes and talk to them about why they chose to nurse whether they are happy and wish to continue and also take advice from them. She also makes sure to talk to those who leave the job, about why they are leaving, what is wrong, what she can do to keep them in the profession.

Awards and recognition

Binu Sharma has got many awards and recognition in her efficacious career of more than 30 years. She has been awarded the Commendation Medal Eastern command for Exemplary nursing services and has also been the recipient of the Florence Nightingale award in 2007. She talks very proudly about all her achievements but says that her biggest achievement would be if the young nurses start seeing this profession as an attractive career to join like in advance countries.

Current scenario of nursing

In countries like the USA, nursing is rated among the top profile jobs and there was a 7% growth in nursing professionals between 2006 and 2010. She tells us with a sparkle in her eyes that there are social standing and recognition for nursing professionals in these advanced countries. She recommends that for India to do better in health care, it is very crucial that there are an ample number of fully qualified and trained nurses in the country and they have a social standing and recognition and are seen as vital contributors of patient care management.

“I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.” Prof. Dr. A. T. Kora

These lines by Florence Nightingale has been fully lived up to by Prof. Dr. A.T. Kora as she says “ No work or excuse is more important than the life and care of a patient”.

Dr. Kora is the Nursing Superintendent at St. Stephen’s Hospital, Delhi. She received the prestigious Florence Nightingale award from the President this year (2017).

As they say ‘You do not always have to look at famous personalities for inspiration’, Dr. Kora got her inspiration from her aunt who was the then Nursing superintendent for Delhi state. Her aunt became her role-model and motivator.

Dr. Kora joined B.Sc. Nursing at CMC College, Ludhiana in the year 1973.

For Dr. Kora at that time language was the biggest problem. She completed her intermediate in Kerala then directly went to Ludhiana and then got a Punjabi roommate and to top it all both of us didn’t know english.

For the first year of her nursing studies she was not so sure about her choice, she wanted to leave nursing and join microbiology. “Somehow I always had that feeling, but I didn’t have the courage to quit nursing, so I continued with the studies”, she said timidly.

Dr. Kora joined St. Stephen’s in 1977 as a staff nurse and has been a part of the growth of Stephens for last 40 years. She tells us, “When I joined here it was predominantly a maternity based hospital. The old hospital which is nursing college now, was the maternity wing of St. Stephen’s. We had the pre-natal, post-natal, nursery, labour room etc. in that one building and used to have 40-50 deliveries every day. I have seen all veteran doctors running in sarees to attend their patients.”

Dr. Kora recalls two events of all that innervated her to continue nursing and work for such a long period. On the second day of her joining, she had a fight with a doctor who was also the Director of the hospital. The doctor got a complaint that she is not caring properly for a patient but the story was something else. As she tells, “What happened was that while I was resuscitating a patient, some other patient started vomiting and the attendants of that patient started shouting at me to leave what I was doing and clear that mess up. I said I won’t come because resuscitating a patient is more important than cleaning mess at any point of time. The family of that patient complained to doctor and then I went on to say the same thing to the doctor as well, which turned into an argument and I didn’t know that she was the Director of the hospital at that time.” After this argument the director was amazed that a staff nurse was answering back to her and was quite impressed. She called Dr. Kora and gave her the keys to ICU section and asked her to set the unit.

Another incident she quotes as the turning point of her life was when she was posted in CCU in night duty and a patient got serious. Dr. Kora and her colleague Celine defibrillated a patient. When they saw the heart rate coming back on the monitor they started clapping hands and jumping out of joy. As she reminisces, “The treating doctor was Dr. Chabra, he saw us clapping and jumping. He continued to observe us without us knowing. At the end he came and said “well done children, well done”. “That was the turning point where I realised that by doing nursing we can save a lot of lives and then I decided to continue in nursing”. During the later years she went on to like teaching and was transferred to school of nursing just after two years of her joining.

As is said by someone, ‘Motivation is what gets you started, Commitment is what keeps you going’.Dr. A.T. Kora has committed 40 years of her life so far to nursing and teaching. What kept her going these many years?

“It started since I was in college of nursing, somehow I always had that feeling that I am not suitable for this profession. Mrs. Kanwaljeet Gill of Ludhiana was my mentor and was trying to convince me to stay back. When I joined St. Stephen’s Sister Mariamma Rajan came into the scenario. She was a very tough person but if she wanted something from you she would make sure that she is getting that out. In my starting year she would hide herself in curtains of ICU and watch me. She taught me the A B Cs of managing the school. When I would take theory classes, sister Rajan would come and stand outside the class against the wall and listen to what I was teaching, and when I went back to the staff room I’d have a lot of criticism waiting. It was as a scrubber is used to wash the vessel and shine it, the same way she brushed me up”

By 1982, Dr. Kora started officiating as principal in school of nursing. In 1989 she went back to CMC for her Masters in Psychiatric Nursing. She completed her MPhil in guidance and counselling in 2006 and Ph.D. in 2014.

Getting lost in the memories of past she tells us how different things were back then. She and her colleagues were not at all time oriented people. She would enter the ward in the morning and work until the task is complete. At times in the middle of night she would get a call and rush back to hospital (with half saree fixed and half in hand) for one or the other emergency. Gallantly she speaks, “I remember, nobody would say that it is my time to leave, so I cannot do this work. Never ever anybody had any complaints and everybody enjoyed working. Those days you are not looking at the watch, instead you are looking at the patient and you are talking and listening to what he/she has to tell you”.

She feels that nursing is a noble profession and outlook of general public towards nurses has not changed much. They still look at nurses with a lot of hope, but nurse’s outlook towards nursing has changed. Those days nurses were more concerned for scientific principles, but now, that terminology has gone off and the word rationale has come in, but nobody asks why we are doing it. Without knowing the actual purpose as to why a procedure is done, nobody can practice successfully, she says. The patients whom we took care of 15 years back when they revisited the hospital after some years they would come and touch your feet and tell you how good they felt because of your care, but now these things are seldom seen. The humane connect is also going away, she added.

Patient’s response gives Dr. Kora a lot of satisfaction in her profession but she also loves teaching and never misses a chance of teaching anywhere. She has written a book Essentials of health economics for nurses and was a part of nurse’s dictionary. She is also the content editor for revising ‘Fundamentals of Nursing’ by TNAI (Trained Nurses Association of India) and is planning to write another book on nursing administration. People consider her a strict teacher and administrator but there is another side of her where she also cares for her students and colleagues when they are sick and even prepares food for them.

She also likes visiting old age homes since her starting years. She narrated one particular incident that pulled her even more close to old aged people, “I used to visit sister Dayal regularly in St. Mary’s home. One day she introduced me to one lady who was also a nurse and lived in the room next to sister Dayal. I tried talking to her but she would not respond. When I was leaving that day I hugged her and said that I’ll meet her soon and to my surprise she smiled at me. After that I would meet her regularly and talk to her and take her to church. We celebrated her birthday and that day she was really happy. I saw remarkable change in her. That was the time I realised that every human being has the need of somebody to talk to and if you try you can bring these people to mainstream social life again. It may seem a very small thing to you to spend 10-15 minutes with them but for them it is very important”.

How does she manage to do so many things at a time? She replies firmly, “I don’t waste time and I also don’t waste any opportunity”.

Dr. Kora has received many awards and recognitions in her efficacious career of 40 years. Dr. Prof. A.T. Kora has been awarded Nursing Excellence award from TNAI in 2012, award for excellence in healthcare by RKP foundation and India’s Highest recognition in nursing ‘National Florence Nightingale Award’ in 2017. Other prestigious awards include university gold medals by Punjab University in 1991, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial award for outstanding work in M.Sc., and award with three ties for maximum membership enrollment in TNAI. Dr. Kora has also been conferred with the award for maximum contribution to humanity by Kerala Christian Association in 2017. Very modestly she gives all the credits of these awards to her seniors and mentors.

At the end of the discussion Dr. Kora gives a message for the young nurses joining nursing. Humane touch and connect is the most important aspect of nursing. Learn to practice communicating with people and use touch and listening as the basic techniques. Giving proper care to patients and listening to them is important for both the patient and your job satisfaction. Don’t waste your time and never miss an opportunity if you want to grow in your profession.

Tag: Nursing

“Nursing is considered to be the topmost ethical profession of all”