With the deadline for applications to the clinical ladder just around the corner, I need to write a clinical exemplar, a narrative documenting the performance of acts requiring substantial specialized knowledge, judgment, and nursing skill.
As I face this task I dread, two questions come to mind. First, why is it so difficult for nurses to articulate their accomplishments? And second, what other profession requires its members to write a show-and-tell narrative of their accomplishments and contributions to prove their worth?
I challenge anyone from the corporate world to walk 4 miles every day on the job (as I've logged on a pedometer), at sometimes-dizzying speed, sometimes despite missing lunch. Isn't it time to give nurses the recognition we deserve without making us provide the proof?
BETTY KOTELES, RN, BSCN
Tampa, Fla.