Nurses solve with creativity

Have you noticed what a creative bunch nurses are? When the situation demands it, the wheels start turning and nurses create a solution. Sometimes it’s just a small thing.

I once watched a nurse who, when opening a bag containing a bottle of IV medication, noted that the device to hang the bottle was damaged. She immediately set out to solve the problem by devising a functional sling for the bottle from a clean plastic bag and some bent paper clips.

What spurs us in this drive for solutions? As long as they can help it, nurses refuse to allow anything to interfere with their role as the caregiver.

We face one of our bigger challenges right now with the stress of the current economic climate. Families are losing jobs, benefits, insurance and sick pay. Though we nurses can’t fix this problem with paperclips, we can reaffirm our focus to understand that our patients need us more than ever. In addition to their physical issues, many are stressed about how they and their families will manage through these difficult financial times. The quiet confidence and steady comforting hand of the nurse may be the one stable thing in their life right now. When a patient sees their world is spinning out of control, we as nurses have the unique opportunity to provide a center of calm by assuring them of the competence of the hands that are serving them, hands that will continue to do whatever is needed, without fail.

Nurses are intelligent medical professionals. We are well educated and have met rigorous licensure requirements. Our competence is a well earned and a trusted expectation of the patients we serve. The extraordinary nurse steps beyond that to develop solutions that meet the need, whatever that need may be—even if it involves just a few extra office supplies.

Elaine Patton, RN, BSN, MBA, serves as chief of nursing services at Olathe Medical Center.

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