07-6

Nursing, as a typically female profession, must deal constantly with the false impression that nurses are there to wait on the physician. As nurses, we are (36) licensed to provide nursing care only. We do not have any legal or moral (37) obligation to any physician.

We provide health teaching, (38) assess physical as well as emotional problems, (39) coordinate patient-related services, and make all of our nursing decisions based upon what is best or suitable for the patient.

If, in any (40) circumstance, we feel that a physician’s order is (41) inappropriate or unsafe, we have a legal (42) responsibility to question that order or refuse to carry it out.

Nursing is not a nine-to-five job with every weekend off. All nurses are aware of that before they enter the profession. The emotional and physical stress. However, that occurs due to odd working hours is a (43) prime reason for a lot of the career dissatisfaction.

(44) It is sometimes required that we work overtime, and that we change shifts four or five times a month. That disturbs our personal lives, disrupts our sleeping and eating habits, and isolates us from everything except job-related friends and activities.

The quality of nursing care is being affected dramatically by these situations. (45) Most hospitals are now staffed by new graduates, as experienced nurses finally give up trying to change the system. Consumers of medically related services have evidently not been affected enough yet to demand changes in our medical system.

But if trends continue as predicted, (46) they will find that most critical hospital cares will be provided by new, inexperienced, and sometimes inadequately trained nurses.