Top high school graduates enter one of the most difficult undergraduate degrees. They must survive and excel in intense courses specific to the science of professionally caring for individuals, families and communities —health-care issues, leadership, communication, biology, statistics, psychology and counselling. This knowledge is developed and evaluated in classroom and real-life patient-care settings.
The science of caring for people, a combination of textbook smarts from a four-year degree, practical experiences and intuition, is used by RNs to assess situations, make professional judgments and co-ordinate care.
That’s right — intuition. The same type used when a mother, just by looking at a child, knows they are really sick; or a retailer, who looks at the volume of customers in the store, knows that more staff is needed.
We need RNs to use their professional judgment to deal with problematic and unpredictable situations in health care to keep the system running.
It is really distressing for me to see the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) failing to recognize that the RN’s professional judgment is essential to our health-care system. The everyday judgments that keep patients safe can make the difference between life and death. SAHO needs to get smart about the work of nurses and recognize that they use professional judgments to co-ordinate care and keep us safe.
Dr. Laurie Clune, Regina
Clune is associate professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Regina.
Submitted to the Leader Post: Monday, Februrary 29, 2016 (http://leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letter-hey-saho-value-our-nurses)
