Celebrating National Nurses Day and the Heart of Wellness Culture

May 6, 2018 by

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Happy National Nurses Day! First I want to personally say thank you to all the nurses out there. I value you as a person and I value your profession.

At World Wise Beauty I spend a lot of time exploring wellness culture and specifically in the area of Lifestyle as Medicine. At WWB, we look at prevention, self-care and how to manifest wellness in all aspects of our lives. Often, we don’t think of Nurses and the people working in the healing professions until we get sick. Nursing is a profession truly undervalued and most certainly taken for granted. They are there when you are giving birth, and they are there when a loved one is sick and dying. They will be there for you when you are dying. They are with you in your most vulnerable of moments, whether you are preparing for a colonoscopy or throwing up all over yourself in the middle of a painful biopsy.

All I could think of when cared for by a nurse is “God it must be so challenging to keep cool, take care of medical details in a crisis moment, and provide me comfort as they are doing it”. Yes, I was thinking of them, right in the middle of my own discomfort. I was grateful for them. They are there by your side, focused on the medical state of your body at any given moment, but also the personal comfort of your body and spirit. And they often take care of your family when they’re visiting. This in itself is a feat! Nurses are there to take care of you, a role with duties only your mother and father might have and this is a mighty important role. Maybe I need to spell it out. The vital need that matters to all of us, when all is said and done, is receiving care with compassion. Ultimately this is LOVE. How do we miss this?

Now I wouldn’t be honest, if I didn’t recognize that some nurses ( like some doctors) don’t have a ‘bedside manner’. I personally have been fortunate to have experienced more angels, than individuals who are not meant for nursing.  I also know many healing professions have been compromised by the current medical system we have had in place the last 40 years.  Enduring long shifts and assigned too many patients can rattle the best nurse. This can go for the teaching profession too by the way. I am speaking of a culture, very specifically a profit driven culture that has permeated our healthcare system for far too long. Culture matters, and our nurses are the closest thing you get to angels, considering the pressure they are under and the culture they work in. This doesn’t have to be, if we change how we look at ‘healthcare and wellness’ and RAISE our expectations. Not by demanding more of nurses, but by demanding more of our institutions, organizations and culture.

We are the culture and what we focus on is what we value. If you stop and think about this, you would not conjure a pretty picture of us as a society right now. What is sad is there is so much wellness wisdom around the world, which we can learn from and apply to our own culture. We can’t do this if our only end goal is to make a profit. This is not what healthcare is, and yet it is a ‘market’ that we follow like any other ‘industry’. Pay attention to this language because we are defining what we call health care.

Wellness has to be an individual commitment, but we cannot have true personal wellness without a healthy culture to work and live in. There are many books out there today written by doctors who are now talking about the futility of working in a culture called ‘healthcare’ that’s truly not dedicated to healing patients. I will be talking with one soon in my WWB Q&A section. It’s a subject we must talk about if we are to strive for wellness culture. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t good medical professionals out there. There are many, but they are working in a system designed first for a ‘ profitable business’ and this compromises healing outcomes. Can we do both? I think we can, but we have to start with the ‘values’ at the heart of the health organization. Most importantly the wellness values at the center of our culture and hearts.

Nurses are on the front lines of heathcare and will be there for you. Let’s make their work culture a healthy place for them to work in, so they can take good care of us. It is all interdependent. They are human beings, who also need to be healthy. I myself would feel better knowing my nurse got a good night’s sleep and had a healthy breakfast to start her day. I would hope she took much needed breaks when working double shifts, and she had time to feed her soul when she clocked out of her work day. She is a human being, a very special human being, who deserves to be well too. The next time you see a nurse, think of her day, and let her know how much you appreciate her dedication and vocation. This grateful ‘mindset’ is one of the important pillars of wellness culture, and your nurse is the heart of wellness culture. Let’s live life well…

P.S I invite you to follow WWB for Q&A’s with experts, authors and visionaries dedicated to true wellness culture, and your individual well-being. New website is coming in June, and you will be able to explore ideals for wellness culture and self-care in a newly updated platform designed to help you cultivate your own healthy lifestyle!

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