Nursing: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

“With great power, comes great responsibility”. As cliché as that phrase may seem, I feel it lends itself quite well to the nursing field.
I have been a nurse for over two years. While I feel I have some experience, I know that I have so much more to learn. There are days when I go to work and feel like an imposter. When going in and out of patients rooms, giving medications, changing dressings, and seeing people at their most vulnerable it still often seems unreal to me.
Everyday I see people when they are most at risk. I see people when they are most in need of help, compassion, and care. Everyday I make choices about the way in which I deliver their care. And even though I try my best to involve them as much as possible in their plan of care, everyday it is up to me to make many decisions for them.
The autonomy in nursing hopefully forces honesty and integrity. It also often makes me aware of the great responsibility we take when we walk into those hospital doors, pick up those kardexes, and take on our patients. We have power in our care. We deliver medications, procedures, and education. We often give narcotics to a patient that are so powerful they would cause most others to go into respiratory failure. We hold life and death balanced in our hands, and nobody talks about it.
As nurses, it is routine to us to care for those who will never respond to use. We medicate. bathe, and reposition patients whose heart only beats because of the medication we pump into them, lungs only breathe because a machine is doing it for them, and skin’s only intact because of the repositioning and hygiene care we provide them. Everyday, even if we are not in the ER we saves lives. Everyday we prolong life. Everyday we have the opportunity to promote positive change and quality in our patients lives. Everyday, through simple actions and well thought words, we have the ability to change the world.
“With great power, comes great responsibility”.When Uncle ben said these words to Peter Parker, he spoke to my heart. Stan Lee most likely had no idea that when using this phrase he would inspire this nurse. It goes without saying that although Stan Lee may have made it a phrase well known in American pop culture through the widely successful film adaptation of Spiderman, he is not the first to make this point. “In the Gospel According to Luke, Luke records Jesus as saying, ‘Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required; and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more’ (Luke 12:48)” (Uncle Ben).
Will you be able to meet that challenge?
Whether you’re in nursing school, a new graduate, or a seasoned professional, I urge you to meet this challenge. When you are annoyed with the call light or the pile of charting you face, remember that you are doing noble work. Remember that you are doing something for others that they cannot do themselves. Remember you are making a difference, one patient, one person, at a at time.