This first section is about the overall theme of how they see themselves. Participants reveal themselves within the narrative of their stories through these interviews. Through their stories, they permit us to share glimpses of the way they see their own sense of self, descriptive of their experience of being a nurse. Their Identity is reflected in examples of self-expression, emerging as an interpretative blend of meaning, a product of their social interaction with their environment. The participants express that their sense of self, the way that they feel about themselves is closely linked to their professional role. The themes that emerge within how they see themselves include being a nurse with the subthemes of core skills that have always been there and being a nurse now. Other themes include embodiment of skill set, seeing themselves as leaders and feelings of not belonging. Being a Nurse
The theme of being a nurse as central to their identity was embedded within all of the six interviews, emerging throughout participant stories as a way that they see themselves. It embodies the special skill set that is inherent to their clinical experience; their knowledge, their way of being, the network of relationships.
The way that the participants present themselves to others is framed as the social identity of being a nurse. For some of them, being a nurse is shared as a reflection of their
something that they trace back to an early age. For some, those memories of making a career choice are described as being influenced by family, a parent or a sibling. While for others, their memories are tempered within the context of gender and the expectations of what was considered appropriate at the time they were making career choices.
Jane has an image of herself as a nurse from an early age and she describes childhood memories depicted with all the accessories for play including stethoscopes and syringes. Although practice environments changed, nursing was a constant for her, in her own words, ‘it was in her blood’. Reminiscing, she associates being a caregiver with the inevitability of being a nurse and shares how she was always the ‘nurser’. She coined a variation of the noun nurse as an active noun, ‘nurser’.
. . . how I got into nursing was that I always, I pretended to be a nurse from the age of five. Sometimes when I start my programs, I’ll say I’ve been nursing for many, many years since I was five years old. And the stethoscopes, the play syringes, all of it. But always, I was always a caregiver. I was the one who, for whatever reason, it was just in my blood to sort of be the caregiver, sort of the nurser of all things. (Jane)
Lolly reminisced about the familial influence on her chosen career. She describes playing with nurse dolls at a young age and as she grew, her role model was an aunt who she greatly admired. Lolly recounts how that aunt really wanted her to be a nurse. Later on, as Lolly made plans to begin her nurse training, she wished to leave home for the big city, but she described the only alternative available to her that was acceptable to her family was a hospital in a town close to her aunt.
What drew me there (to nursing)? Is my family, a family of six kids, and I was programmed. I was given nurse dolls, and my sister was the teacher and I was going to be the nurse. I had an Aunt who graduated from a metropolitan hospital during war time and she was a great mentor, and really wanted me to go into nursing. I grew up and I wanted to get out and get away. I wanted desperately to go to the city . . . he (her father) thought being near my Aunt and she was a nurse, that would be a good
solution. So that’s how that shook down. . . Family influence and I’ve had no regrets, I’ve loved it and it’s been a great career. Love nursing. (Lolly)
Like other participants Gwen shares a story of familial influence on her career choice. She also identified the influence of an aunt who had been a nurse, but for her she describes always wanting to be a nurse, ‘period’. She describes feeling ‘lucky’ that she was aware throughout her growth and development that she was to be a nurse, there was no question for her, she knew nursing was going to be her life’s work.
Well I had an aunt who was a nurse and as I grew up I never thought to do anything else. I guess I was lucky in that respect. Some people have to find themselves. It was never a question for me. I was going to somehow figure out how to do what my aunt did. So I went to nursing school without ever another thought to it . . . that was always what I wanted to do. It was kind of weird, because I know many young people who struggle with all the choices in front of them. It never happened that way for me. It was just, I was going to be a nurse period, no other thought or discussion . . . Yeah, always wanted to be a nurse. (Gwen)
Edith also shares memories of being influenced by her older sister and her studies, shaking her head and softly laughing as she spoke. Her exposure to biology textbooks was through her older sister’s nursing studies. She describes how that experience sparked her interest in biology, science and how the body works. She describes the lure of biology and science and how the body works and how she loved nursing and was good at it from the start.
. . . because my sister’s a nurse and she’s older than I am. She had all of her anatomy and physiology books spread out all over the floor when she was studying and I thought it was cool. Oh, I want to learn about that, so that was that . . . (continuing to chuckle). So she was a huge influence on me and it wasn’t so much what nursing was going to be about at the time, it was more that I wanted to know more about the biology and the science, you know, how the body works and how we could help people with their diseases at the time, I guess. . . I didn’t know that I knew what nursing was
all about when I went into nursing cause I was young, but I excelled in it and loved it from the minute I got in. (Edith)
Being a nurse in industry
While each participant shared childhood memories of their chosen path to nursing, being a nurse is now associated with the multi-faceted role that they play within industry. Nursing frames their current role and it is the essence of their clinical experience that differentiates them from their co-workers in industry. It authenticates their clinical perspective as a professional caregiver and while the practice setting may change, for them, the essence of ‘being a nurse’ remains constant. Participants comment on how they primarily think of themselves as nurses.
Edith responded to a probing question concerning the nature of how she thinks of herself today. Regardless of the place of employment, she shares that she thinks about herself as a nurse and as she puts it, it is a part of who she is, her identity. She describes how that will not change, regardless of where she is employed. Here Edith comments on not knowing how to ‘take that (nursing) out of someone’. By her language, she feels that nursing is a fixed part of her identity.
I say I’m a nurse. I don’t know that that’s ever going to come out of me (a bit of a chuckle). I still use my skills whether it be gosh on an airline with a patient having a heart attack which has happened to me or running upon car accidents. I am this pseudo-nurse for the whole company which is really funny because we don’t have an occupational health nurse at our company. And so I go to corporate and probably within that first hour I have three people come up to me and ask. . . I truly don’t mind, I think it’s wonderful that they have the confidence that they can confide in me and tell me their issue. . . I don’t know how you take that out of the person. (Edith)
The participants associated ‘being a nurse’ with the credibility of their current role as a CWOCNII. They describe how their training and expertise as a nurse now means that they are able to relate to direct care nurses from their position within industry. Candice states
an impact on her current role and she offers an example of having led an installation of software in her hospital. Candice feels that her ability to ‘relate to’ nurses’ work at the bedside, using her experience of the software installation as an example, adds credibility to her professional interactions, while her comment that she feels that she can ‘cross
boundaries’ exemplifies how her clinical experience translates from the bedside to industry and back again.
You know, but I can still say I came from a Level One trauma center, as director of wound care and wound care program had nine nurses that we developed from 1.5 FTEs. So I can relate to what you’re doing. I can relate to they’re saying they turn the patient and they’re not. I relate to
electronic, making electronic records, it rolled out after I left, but I designed it with Epic. So I’ve been there, done that. That part has really come in handy, that I can cross boundaries because it’s not been so long that I’ve been in a hospital. (Candice)
Gwen spoke about her perception of the way that sales representatives in healthcare sell to nurses and how for her, that experience of selling is framed by her legacy of being a nurse. She described how being a nurse is vital to appreciate and understand the stress that nurses are under when they care for patients. That empathic understanding comes to her through her history of being a nurse at the bedside.
Well you have to have a true appreciation for the stress that nurses are under. Having done it myself, you know, I always say the crux of someone who’s never been a nurse, trying to sell, they really think they’re important to these nurses that are giving up their time. They don’t understand that the nurse if she gives you any time at all, you’re lucky! You know I have that compassion. As for people in their role, I knew what it was about for them. (Gwen)
The legacy of being a nurse characterizes the way in which participants approach and carry out their role in industry now, impacted by the nursing process. For Candice, she shared the way she feels about professionally interacting with colleagues in industry at conferences and in exhibit halls. She frames her interaction as a nurse inquiring about products, while
also being transparent about her role. Here again, the experience of being a nurse is at the core of her identity.
I’m going to say as a friendly, inquisitive person, I have no problems in going up to a booth, when I see someone with a new bed, I have no problems, I’ll tell them I’m a wound care nurse you know, yes I work for a company, I won’t lie, and I’m curious about your bed because I still am a wound care nurse. I want to see what’s on the market.. . . I used to be a customer and now I’m a competitor, but that’s O.K. (Candice)
Core skills that have always been there
Many of the participants trace back their traits and skills to an earlier time in their personal as well as their professional lives. Participants share stories of how core skills that serve them now have been part of who they are, from a young age.
As an example, sharing what she describes as her greatest strength, networking and relationship building, Jane draws a temporal analogy and associates her youthful social interactions with her ability to be socially interactive as a professional. Jane reveals how she feels about her own sense of honesty and the way that she sees herself as being transparent to others. She expresses a belief that the personality traits and social skills that she
demonstrated as a young woman facilitate her being a nurse; she feels that those skills have always been with her.
I’d say what makes me most unique . . . my most probably, my strongest skill set is in networking and relationship building. Right back to the party girl in high school. You know, I was at every party. Had all friends from all the schools, everybody is a friend to me, and I think that my skills around network development and I also think I have, I’m honest and I think that’s easily recognized. I had a hard time, I’m very transparent. I have a hard time talking about something I don’t believe in. Can’t! (Jane)
The demographics of the participants illustrates that they share a temporal experience of having grown up as young professional women of the 1970’s. Gwen offered insight into how she sees herself when she responded to a probing question about her expectations of
nursing. She spoke emphatically with direct eye contact and made a connection with the investigator, while she associated how her experience during the 1970’s was a part of the way she saw herself. She described how it was difficult to enter nursing school and those who did so were required to have academic skills in addition to the qualities of compassion and dedication. She states that she saw herself as being ‘top draw.’
I knew it would be demanding (spoken with great emphasis) and the school I went to . . . we’re in the same age group, way back when in the 70’s when I went to school, you had to earn the right to stay in that program. I mean they would get rid of people in the nursing school if you didn’t have the academic skills as well as the compassion and dedication, you had to be top draw to do this job and that’s exactly who I saw myself as. (Gwen)
Embodiment of Skill Set
Having a nursing skill set is alluded to throughout the interviews and includes characteristics that the participants describe and attribute to themselves, including being autonomous, expressing creativity, liking a challenge and being a risk taker. Importantly, they described this skill set as having a key social component, including relationship building and the ability to network. The participants described that these skills were acquired as part of their legacy of nursing and are an amalgamation of accumulated nursing experience and education and include expert knowledge about disease, health, conditions, treatment and prevention. Gwen shared an image of herself about the way she perceives her life work in industry. She admits to liking a challenge and she feels that the skill set she developed during her nursing career has enabled her to meet challenges and to be successful in her role in industry. She feels that she is using skills she already had developed as a direct care nurse. That skill set was acquired over years of working many different nursing roles around the world.
I found I enjoyed challenging myself, directing myself. I’m good at all that. It just worked for me. The skills, that it took to do the job (in industry), were skills that I had already developed. So I could start out being quite successful. (Gwen)
Responding to a probe about what Lara considers to be the primary skill set that she brings to industry, she associates her legacy of being a nurse with the experience and knowledge she brings to industry. She draws on her previous clinical caregiving experience, her wealth of knowledge and her expertise about wound care to inform her role within product design. Lara describes how she feels that she relates to what nurses do every day by drawing upon her own expertise. She talked about knowing what patients and their significant others go through and about knowing the course of the disease and the treatment. She goes on to describe how the technology surrounding the treatment of wounds is changing, based on the evolving science. She describes how she feels that the new research and innovative technology is very interesting as it relates to wound healing.
It’s probably understanding, having the basic disease entity understanding. For a long time a lot of the products that I supported were in support of pressure ulcers. Well I know about pressure ulcers, I took care of them. I knew what patients went through, I knew what families went through . . . So it’s having that really good skill set of the disease, of the treatment, being able to research it. I took care of a lot of venous leg ulcers in home care, wrapped them. But the science in that is changing and it’s just fascinating. The whole thought process, there’s lots of research going on over in Europe. Very interesting what’s going on and how it’s effecting healing. (Lara)
Seeing themselves as leaders
The theme of being a leader is a frequent descriptor employed by participants as they refer to the way that they see themselves and an important embodiment of the skill set that has evolved over time. However, each of the participants defines leadership in their own way. Many of the participants describe how the legacy of their special nursing skill set and their