Clinical narratives, nursing and image

I read my latest AJN and there is an article that discusses Benner's concept of clinical narratives and how they work in nursing.

If you read this above-linked PDF in detail, you may already realize that many bloggers, including myself, already describe many of these situations. We may obfuscate, consolidate and agglomerate our people and situations, but the comings and goings of our lives as nurses are on the screen. Take note, that this nursing narrative concept was developed in 1993.

I wonder, if Professor Benner looks out in the blogosphere and sees the narrative she defines in this document. I ask you, the lurkers and the bloggers, to start your story if you haven't written at all and if you have, I ask you, please continue to tell your story.

Besides the narratives, there are things we can do daily. We can project a positive image in how we carry ourselves and how we do our jobs. I got the e-mail below in a mailing list digest which discusses the image of nursing. Note the items in bold below, that I've chosen to highlight.

RE: [ni-wg] Are you proud to be a nurse? (from a faculty member at http://nursing.umaryland.edu/)

"Yes, I am proud to be a nurse, but am I proud of how nursing promotes itself and how others perceive us? Not really. Each semester, I ask my first semester undergraduate NI students to close their eyes, picture a physician and a nurse, and then describe what they see. These students, who have no nursing background, usually describe the physician as middle-aged, well-dressed (frequently wearing a lab coat), and very professional looking man. This description has not changed much over the years – varying little with student age and background, but changing somewhat with race and national origin. The nurse students pictured has changed a great deal over the past several years. At first, many students reported picturing a middle-aged, somewhat matronly looking woman in white, occasionally wearing a cap. However, as the incoming students are getting younger (actually younger, not just in context of my age), the nurses they picture look different. Many students report younger women wearing ill-fitting, multi-colored scrubs with animal prints. They reported them as looking harried and dour. Overall, the reports are of nurses that look overworked, unprofessional, and unhappy. This is not something I am particularly proud of. I asked several students who made such negative reports why they chose nursing if they see it in such a negative light. A common response was that they want to be part of changing nursing from a devalued occupation to a respected profession.

Yes, I am proud to be a nurse. I am even prouder of my students who want to be better nurses than those they pictured in their minds eyes."

Yes, Professor. I am proud, too, and this fuels me to do better.