Interview with Eric
Eric loves being a nurse. He has found a work life balance that really works for him. We caught up with Eric recently to understand his perspective.
How did you get into Nursing?
Eric: Nursing was my career choice – something I had thought about when I was young, but I stumbled on to a different career. Then, at 30 years of age, I decided to go for it. I went to college, then university and here I am.
Let's jump ahead for a moment - What would you say to a young person just entering the field?
Eric: I’d say to a young person entering the field, ‘Go for it.’ And I do see a lot of them. It is one of the best things that has been happening. For a while, it almost seemed like a dark age in nursing - the number of students interested in nursing was declining, and morale among nurses was low. In my view, that is shifting. We are seeing the other side of that coin now where there is a lot of eager, competent, highly educated youth coming into the career and that is fantastic. A baccalaureate is required to practice. There are university degreed individuals who come into the workforce highly ready to practice. My experience has been that they are eager and competent and dependable. Anyone who is thinking about nursing as a career, I’d say go for it – the flexibility, the income - all of those are important, and you are doing meaningful work. So if you are looking at your life as a whole, you can be very fulfilled with this career.
What was it that inspired you to want to become a nurse?
Eric: What inspired me to become a nurse! The fundamental ideology behind nursing is to care. But it is also what we get back from nursing. So there is a good balance in it. This is to do good work, to help.
Did you have a mentor – any particular person who prompted you to become a nurse?
Eric: I’ve had a number of mentors in my nursing career – some in school, some after that. It's important to have them.
What is your philosophy of nursing?
Eric: My philosophy of nursing is balance. We give to the patients; they give to us. Initially, we are there to heal them physically but it is a holistic career. You are taking care of not a body part or a system – you are taking care of the entire person which more often than not includes taking care of their family and friends as well, because they are part of the patient at all times.
What is the hardest thing about being a nurse?
Eric: The tragedy is one of the most difficult things about being a nurse. A lot of times death is appropriate. We all come and we all go. And there is beauty in birth and death. But sometimes it is very difficult and very tragic. And people haven’t had the opportunity to finish things off, so to speak. And that I find is what people grieve about the most. They put it off until tomorrow. They just didn’t say the last thing and it is difficult to work clinically in that situation. And also experience the grief of a family member because they are part of the scenario as well. It can be a chance to work in those two environments together.
How do you manage your emotions while all that is going on?
Eric: I have them. We are human. Emotions are the beginning, the middle and the end. Of course, you don’t break down. But you have empathy. You show them empathy through body language, tone of speech as much as you possibly can. Most scenarios like that usually have a charge nurse or someone in the environment that can be with them and make sure that they are OK. Things flow. There are no guidelines. Sometimes it gets very, very sad; some people are quiet and they react; other people are slow. It varies with the individual whom we are taking care of. But it is always sad.
The nurse in addition to having a clinical role and a higher degree of expected professionalism are also kind of expected to be de facto priests? Do you agree?
Eric: Well, in nursing that is one of the challenges about how we are paid and what we are paid for. We document what we do in measurable ways: what we do, when we do it and therefore get paid based on those hours; hospitals are funded for those hours. But it is what we do that is not tangible. It is holding the mother's hand while she dies; it is keeping the son alive who has been shot in the head; the wife who has been in a car accident. The emotional support isn’t tangible. It is something that was always there before in nursing because it is primarily a female driven profession. It is expected that the emotion existed. That emotion exists in all of us. And we do bring it up in our profession. But it is very difficult for it to be measureable. It is too dimensional to write it down on paper. And that is one of the things unfortunately that we don’t get paid for, and in my opinion it is the most unique skill that a nurse possesses – the ability to connect with the humanness of another person.
What about the doctors?
Eric: There are many that can. I've met some incredible physicians in my career. Some surgeons can’t because they are driven clinically. They have a different focus and a personality as well. Some scientists do not think that way. It is not so much doctors as it is just different people - all different types of nurses and all different types of doctors. Not all nurses have the capability to have that connection with humanness. I believe most do. I believe most physicians do. I believe most people in healthcare have that ability and that is why we are there.
What for you is the best part about being a nurse?
Eric: The recognition. Finally, at this point in my career and in my life, I am starting to see that nursing as a whole globally, as a body, is being recognized. We have self governance. We have made and continue to make changes in government policy. We are involved a great deal in research. Chief Nursing Officers these days have significant budgets and significant portfolios. This is our group making changes. A number of major centres here in Toronto have CEOs who are nurses. So we are starting to see a shift in the paradigm for nursing.
What are some of the outside activities that you enjoy that help you balance your life?
Eric: I think the key in your nursing career is what you do outside of the job. I am lucky in that when I leave my workplace, I am finished. So physical activity is always great. Reading for school is one thing, but reading for pleasure is another. So literature helps. Debriefing - nurses hanging out together a lot. Some people may think it is office chatter, shop talk. But a debriefing is an opportunity to talk about things that other people don’t go through, that we experience and we see and we touch. Because when you come to us, you are in the most naked state that you have ever been in. And we see that in experience. So going out together helps. Remaining social, rested, exercised – all of these things balance your life and your career.
How important is flexibility in your schedule to you personally?
Eric: Flexibility in my schedule for me is the key. I like to travel. I like to go away in the winter. I like to go to cottages in the summer time. So, I like to be in control of my schedule – get the hours to work but still not be forced into working in a set schedule.
How are you able to witness blood, guts, death, tragedy etc. and then go out and have joy, have lightness, be in love, sing or whatever it is? Can you do both, and if so, how?
Eric: Absolutely, you can do both. You can experience the rush of the trauma or the passivity of the dying patient. You can experience all of those events in the workplace and go out and be normal and live a normal life. But when it comes down to that balance, I am a nurse. That is my profession. I am paid to be a nurse. But I do many other things. It is most definitely possible. It is a fine line of getting close enough to the person to be able to nurture and nurse them, and yet not getting too close. I have said this to many clients and to many patients and their families. Families would come to me and say, ‘The family members are in an absolute state'. That is shocking to them and they say, ‘How do you cope with this?’ I know this is somebody’s mum or dad or sister and they are loved and they are feeling whatever they are feeling. Nurses see the full spectrum of human suffering. That is where it all comes together. They are somebody. They are not "the trauma"; it is Mrs. X, who has three kids, who was on her way home from the grocery store, and it is her husband, standing besides her, falling apart. We are all the same. We are in it together. If we did not have each other, then who do we have?
How has nursing changed since you’ve been involved?
Eric: Nursing has changed significantly since I have been involved. It has not been that long – 14 years as I said earlier. I think a lot of society perceived it before as a labour-union mentality type job, a one primarily geared for women - almost a housekeeper with added skills. Now, we are starting to be recognised globally for a profession which is much, much more. We do many different things. Nursing is not just a white uniform and a cap with a bed pan. But it is running multi-million dollar corporations. It can be top notch global research. Nursing is huge! There are more incidences of men in the industry. There is the Canadian Association of Male Nurses. There has been the American Association of Male Nurses for a number of years.
We are starting to see a shift also in the flexibility. It used to be that when you went into nursing, you went into nursing school at a hospital and you stayed there for 30 – 40 years and you got tired, got a lovely watch and you left. Now you can work anywhere. You can work in the trauma centre one week; you can work in a cardiovascular unit the next; and there are surgical centres the next - if you have the skills and experience, of course. But these opportunities are open to us. We can shift and move as our lives shift and move; we can take it with us; it is portable. I don’t have to pack anything. I can nurse in Saudi Arabia, British Columbia and Florida. I can go to any country in the world and my skills will be utilized.
Why did you decide to work for an agency? How did that come about?
Eric: I chose to work through an agency because it was just that – it was choice. Schedules in hospitals can be difficult, often the Patient Care Units are working short staffed. Working with nursing agencies, I am able to work when I choose to work, however many hours I choose. It has allowed me to travel. It has allowed me to maintain my personal life without the juggle. I have full time employment, or more, if I choose to and still fit in all of my personal life. And that is where the balance comes into play. A lot of people are running around without a sense of balance because they cannot make everything fit into the holes. I am lucky enough through agency nursing I choose my schedules. I don’t have to fit anything in.
Among nurses, does "temping" or working with agencies have any kind of stigma attached to it?
Eric: It used to. Maybe a decade or so ago, it used to be almost a rent-a-nurse type of scenario. And they had that label– an "agency nurse". I did not like it. Nowadays, it is very different. Some of the highest qualified nurses - some of the best - are agency nurses, and I would be more than happy to have them care of me or anyone I love. They are doing it for some of the same reasons that I am doing it. Agency work gives them flexibility.
From what I have seen lately, agencies are attracting the best nurses because we can practice in the major centres; we can do trauma, emergency, what ever you like on our own schedule. My experience with agency nurses has improved greatly in the last decade. Because like I said, some of the best practitioners I have met in my nursing career have worked through an agency.
How would you compare the empowerment, acknowledgement, honouring of nurses by Carecor compared to the way the institutional environment treats them?
Eric: In institutions, there is more bureaucracy. My experience with Carecor is that I have been treated like the customer. And I have never experienced that before. I have always been the worker. With Carecor, they ask me for my work availability. They are proactive. They call me. I tell them when I want to work and they get me the shifts. It is streamlined.
Hospitals are larger health care centres. It is different for them. I don’t know if it is more difficult or what it is, but scheduling can be a challenge because again you have all different levels of requests and seniority and all of that going on. Carecor is not – you’ve got the qualifications, you can do this. You are into traumas, you go to the trauma unit. It is clear cut.
Administratively, Carecor has always been on the mark. The cheque has never been "in the mail" with them. They have always met their part of the bargain. And when I wanted to go back into agency nursing, I narrowed down on them and I set out towards the best. I knew Carecor had been around the longest. I had worked with many nurses who belonged to Carecor, and they were very astute and very professional. So I thought, 'What has Carecor got going on?' So I went and had an interview, but I interviewed them as well. I don’t know if they were aware of it, but I interviewed them. And they were choosy. It was a long interview. They asked a lot of questions. I had a two-day orientation. They don’t just take anybody. They wanted to know about my skills and my proven abilities. That was a good sign – I have a lot of faith in the company. And I think that’s what it comes down to when you are working for someone - how do you perceive them as an employer, and faith is part of that along with ability and accountability. Any issues that have arisen, Carecor has been right there on the mark.
What would you say is the best quality they offer?
Eric: Carecor has a team of great Staffing Co-ordinators. They do not just schedule you. In some sense, they get to know you. They know how I travel, what my life is like and it is almost like I have a personal schedule. It is fantastic. It is one of the best things that I have experienced with Carecor. And the Human Resources department staff are always available, always supportive and always professional. Their payroll department – I have worked for Carecor for a number of years and I have not once had an issue with my pay cheque. Not that that is a huge deal, but we all like to get our money. So, it is multi faceted. Many reasons why Carecor is one of the best.
One more question. If you knew of someone who is waffling about going to agencies at all or going to one particular agency, not Carecor, and you would have to say only one sentence to them to motivate them to try Carecor or to investigate Carecor, what would you say to them directly?
Eric: I'd say – talk to the people you are working with; talk to the agency nurses you are working with; note their skills; note where the best nurses come from and then decide for yourselves. That is Carecor.
