It will come as no great surprise, I am sure, that I decided to enter nursing because I wanted to have one-to-one contact with patients and actually feel as if I was making a positive difference to their lives.
- Originally published 8th May, 2012
However, even in my short time within the NHS I have begun to notice some substantial change which raises real questions about what sort of nurse I will become when I qualify in around two years. Nurses are becoming increasingly bombarded with extra paperwork. Updated risk scores or changes to focus charts have the potential to take nurses away from the patients and tie them to the nurses’ station to carry out their daily administration duties. I don’t fully understand the changes being made and it is nearly impossible to predict what changes will continue to happen during the course of my nurse training but a concern of mine is that I will end up being a nurse who has to spend more time with paperwork rather than getting to know my patients. I fully understand the importance of documentation not only as a vital tool to protect nurses but also to provide a high standard of care to our patients but are we getting the balance right? As students, are you similarly worried about how much of your time will be taken up by documentation?
As always I would be interested to know what you think so please feel free to leave your comments
