Been cruising the other nursing blogs and Facebook pages this week to see what’s going on. What is it about a new year that makes everyone so introspective I wonder? I mean, I do it too…but I have little explanation for it. We always hope the new year, the new job, the new degree, etc. will be better.

I think we approach any new moment or change with hope and ideals. In perusing the comments on these blogs and pages, some nurses have lost their hope. I see the cynicism come out…the bitterness that spews out across the page. And I’ve been there too.

This week, I have no catchy quotes to post, no great words of wisdom, no inspirational song-and-dance.  In no other profession as a whole except medicine (or maybe the military?) do people enter it with grandiose and worthy ideals, and become so jaded with the realities as time goes by. Some survive somewhat by becoming robots, shutting off feelings, and just doing the job in order to earn a paycheck (that “the 99%” of nurses think should be larger).

But some nurses keep their hope. Mixed in with (and thankfully outnumbering) the vitriolic comments are the comments about wanting to make the agony and struggles of patients more bearable in the year ahead. Not to solve all the illnesses and problems, not to change the world…but to lessen someone’s suffering. When we are able to do that, hope remains alive and we become just a little bit less jaded.

Tags: burnout, hope, ideals, new year's, patient care