Jennifer Stone|Photos by Leah Huebner
Actress and emergency room nurse Jennifer Rock shares just how tiny acts of treatment, team effort, and personal routines aid nurses remain grounded and effective.
Can you share a minute from your career that reminded you why you selected nursing?
I had a medical professional as soon as tell me, “If you can actually touch a single person a change, it’s been really successful, and that’s a great change.” As a nurse, you’re always hurrying around; it’s extremely hectic, specifically in the ER, so it has to do with the minutes of stillness with somebody who just needs comfort or someone to look after them. Whether it’s an older individual that doesn’t have anybody and just intends to speak, or if it’s somebody that’s truly scared, you can simply attempt to make time, stop a little, and be like, “Hey, you’re fine. You remain in the very best possible location, and we’ve obtained you.” It’s those moments of being a feeling of certainty for a person in a time of unpredictability that remind me why I do what I do.
What’s one item of modern technology or devices that’s made your work as a nurse extra reliable or effective?
That’s a great concern. An excellent piece of technology that has made nursing more reliable is, I despise to state, the PureWick. We have a lot of non-ambulatory individuals, so the PureWick, a condom catheter, aids individuals remain more comfortable without utilizing something like a bedpan, which can feel kind of undermining or uncomfortable or create bedsores. Also, things like ultrasound devices for hard-stick IVs. Those are game changers. Likewise, updated charting systems. Having great shorthand to be able to chart successfully and get back to one-on-one patient treatment is terrific.
Has there been a time when strong interaction, with either a person or teammate, made a large distinction in your day?
I didn’t prepare for that there would certainly be numerous parallels in between acting and nursing, however among my favored things about both is the partnership.
Whenever I have a registered nurse that’s in my group– whether they jump in when I’m embeded one more room with an individual or I do the same for them– it’s that shorthand of seeing that a nurse has a demand and teaming up. We’re all on the exact same team. We’re all attempting to accomplish the same point– much better client end results. When I have a registered nurse who, without me also asking, will jump in and assist me with the patient, that makes me seem like we’re all working together on this together for a typical objective. That’s something that simply suggests the globe to me– when nurses will help each various other out.
What suggestions would you offer to a registered nurse that’s feeling overwhelmed or underappreciated now?
Focus on what you can control. I’ll be extremely truthful. For me, I know often, particularly in the earlier years, I would get extremely mad at things that were really out of my control. Whether it was concerns with the health care system, or the way the system was set up and falling short, I would find myself getting really angry and inhibited. What’s helped me is to concentrate on things that I can regulate. Yes, they might be on a smaller scale, yet I can control how I respond to negativity at work or positivity at work. I can manage how I talk to patients. I can control what I allow and what I don’t. Specifically in an ER setting, or any type of medical care bedside environment, there can be a lot of negativeness, unfortunately, and it’s within your control what you let in.
I’ll be straightforward: Some days I win, and some days I lose and enable things in, without a doubt. There are shifts I ended where I was like, “Alright, this shift beat me.” Yet I attempt to make it so I am in control of how I reply to the healthcare industry, and to understand that it’s all an option. Although some days it’s more challenging than others.
What everyday habits or little routines help you remain based and feel excellent throughout lengthy or demanding changes?
Getting outside, to be sincere. Time stalls when you get on a 12 -hour shift, so I carve out time if I can– and not every shift enables it– but when I can, I take time to just obtain outside, get some vitamin D, and take a look at some nature. It’s something to remind you that the entire world isn’t those fluorescent lights. It’s simply kind of reconnecting with life outside of the hospital.