What nurses can teach us | Christie Watson | TEDxVienna

Nursing cannot cure us, our human condition, this messy magic of being human. But here’s the thing, nursing doesn’t seek to cure. Nurses can remind us who we are, or who we are meant to be. It is nurses who can save us. Christie Watson is a writer and Professor of Medical and Health Humanities. She is Patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation. Her book Tiny Sunbirds Far Away won the Costa First Novel Award and along with her second novel, Where Women Are Kings, was widely translated and achieved international critical acclaim. The Language of Kindness, published in 2018, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller and Book of the Year in the Evening Standard, Guardian, New Statesman, the Sunday Times and The Times. It has been translated
into 23 languages, and adapted for theatre, with a UK tour beginning in 2021. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@KiwikimNZ]

I am a nurse of 25 years. I am tired. I have given my whole life, but those “Betty” moments are the moments that keep you going. It is so sad that nurses are now the enemy in societies eyes, it makes you want to give up, but I will always put my hand up no matter how tired I am.

[@lavenderhearts101]

I am a retired bedside nurse of 40 years. Those Betty moments kept me going too❤️ May God give strength to and bless all nurses and health care workers during this unprecedented, challenging time.

[@amboumndum5586]

Thanks so much Christie for sharing

[@slooftaroof]

I am an ICU nurse that has definitely experienced compassion fatigue and burnout in the past, hearing this TED talk brought me to tears in reminding me why we do what we do and how integral compassion is in the fabric of society

[@kateguillemette5948]

I am a LPN student who heard this for the first time today in class. I have rewatched it 6 times since. I have never agreed with words being said more than these. What a gift it is to be able to live a life of compassion.

[@blueprairiedog]

I've been an RN for 42 years. I can't return to the hospital because there's no value placed on listening, comforting and supporting people. There's no time for anything that doesn't have a billing code, yet that's where much of healing occurs.

[@immigrantamericannurse2714]

Thank you so much, Christie, for sharing and for bringing to light our duty to save lives. I am a nurse, BSN RN. I saw so much during covid, and my heart felt so betrayed. I could not believe that our patients were dead and stored in RVS on my hospital parking lot because the morgues were too full.

[@DO.Dr.JM13]

Nurses are often overlooked as one of the greatest resources in the healthcare world. I am a current 2nd year medical student preparing to enter into my clinical rotations this summer. In the world have healthcare and ethics one of the key principles is Justice. This justice often refers only to the patients’ health and their degree of care, whether the actions being taken on behalf of the patient are legal and ethically sound. Justice works in harmony with the other 3 pillars of ethics in healthcare, autonomy, beneficence, and non-maleficence. Together these four pillars provide safety for those individuals who are exposed to the healthcare system and protects their rights to the treatment they deem best for themselves. However, I think the emotion with which Christie presents her Ted talk shows the need for these same principles to be applied to the front-line workers in the healthcare system. Nurses are often taken advantage of by being forced to work short staffed, working overtime, cutting their budget, requiring more of them, and giving them less resources, etc.… I think if we expect nurses to treat our patients with beneficence and non-maleficence, then we need those who are in charge of hospitals and clinical settings to treat their nurses and other workers the same way. Like Christie said, when people look back on this time, they are going to look back on the compassion that was demonstrated, and hopefully we can see compassion given not only to those sick patients but compassion given to those who are giving of their time and energy to heal the sick by working long hours, short staffed, with limited resources. Thanks, Christie, for sharing this message hopefully with your selfless presentation on compassion others will return the favor and show greater compassion to those working on the front lines of healthcare whether we are in a pandemic or not.

[@juliekendall]

Dr. M, please share your perspective with hospital administration - they need to hear this.

[@nursienice17]

Thank you for this!! I'm so weary, as a nurse! I needed this desperately.

[@marimelsid4045]

inspiste our society not appreciate us but being a nurse is the best choice that I had ever taken , I proud to be a nurse 💙.

[@user-dj4ey7oy3s]

Thanks for your working and thanks a lot for all nurses in the world

[@bralinx.official]

Its really beautifully and emotionally said. Great thanks Watson, you really representing our feeling as nurses.

[@Hassanali55880]

I'm first year nursing student.. I'm proud to be nurse❤️

[@lucymacnamara9898]

Wow, so thought provoking, emotive and yet it’s all so simple. Amazingly eloquent and beautifully said, Christie 💕

[@johanneberube6682]

Hi! You are very intelligent and good-hearted. I wish everybody would listen to your message... Thank you 💖🌹

[@hettiebester52]

Thank you so much for this message. Im in the nursing profession now for 40 years, mostly in critical care. Yes, I'm tired, physically, mentally and emotionally. Working trough extreme suffering during the pandemic,I wanted to throw in the towel. But there is still so much suffering out there. And after hearing this message, I will still go out and make a difference.

[@nurselifeinksa.6959]

I've been a critical care nurse for more than 20 years.

[@okekeanyanna9362]

This is beautiful, it offers a great deal of encouragement,strength, endurance in this tough call.

[@dianacaporiccio5776]

Beautifully said! Its the "Betty's" that keep us going in our demanding line of work.

[@garenlamperouge7785]

Proud to be a nursing student

[@sebyskaria3341]

I am proud to be a nurse🥰

[@lavenderhearts101]

I am proud of you 👍

[@cindyhalpern3187]

Thank you for your service!

[@aneetarose2228]

Dear Ma'am Christie I seen seen your vedio today.Its amazing and wonderfully said.Thank you for such a beautiful speach.God bless

[@nadiahassan9255]

Thank you for inspiring and excellent speech 💬 👏

[@patriciastover3647]

Glad I found this❤

[@kenfletcher1306]

All the greatest healers are nurses!

[@dinubandara1762]

I am a nurse & proud of you ❤

[@amboumndum5586]

Am so touch about the move you took to see into your dream

[@maimostafa513]

compassion !

[@amboumndum5586]

Am proud to be a nurse,even though at this level and stage of my life i will going back because of the difficulties that are driving me away from my dreams

[@peninahkirea1101]

This is inspiring.

[@nurseabdulelah.6700]

I agree 100% with you

[@gingerssmelllikecabbageand8708]

It’s a lovely speech, its uses spear head words and mindful pauses. But it’s not enough, she has forgotten that the current government has allowed waiting lists to grow to over 7 million, im one of those waiting for a operation, but thankfully still work, for the time being. That wages Im Poorly paid, that now requires me for do close to 50-60 hrs of additional shifts on top the 40 hours i ready have to do. This is time away from my own family and kids, where is my time to teach them about compassion of the world, im not there. She’s done well with her speech and it will come across well to the general public, even light a fire for those nurses struggling. But alas, I see someone, with good timing, opened the dictionary and somehow managed to find time for this one patient, maybe the other patients were crying for pain relief in the background who knows. I sure i come off as bitter, I won’t even lie I am. But I wasn’t always this way, you’ve made me this way. I’m glad I have walked away from nursing, I have a job that,not in society’s eyes for filling, but I get to spend that time with the ones I love. Nursing is for life if you treat them right, nursing is for 10yrs if you don’t. It’s a lovely profession if done right, it’s a unforgiving if done wrong.

[@mayuriniluka736]

Thank you

[@vivianacorinacabarcaherrera]

awesome...

[@stephanienikols9831]

I’m getting into teaching nursing students. After my masters 😊

[@Queensasya08]

All that is good will end well❤

[@MsAssadd]

So nice. Dr. Siddiqui 🇮🇳

[@rodgerswere1348]

Great insights here. Very inspiring piece.

[@vivianacorinacabarcaherrera]

true

[@puny_God]

Great

[@kgaumont]

Around 3:28, right after she mentions the bleak horror of not being able to save enough lives from the "awful, awful disease" of COVID-19, the cut to a reaction shot from the completely maskless audience is a nice touch :)

[@andersonsouza9003]

❤❤

[@maevisperas6436]

👏👏

[@NO6OBRIEN]

Betty ❤❤❤

[@roseterrado7297]

manila madami

[@RayhanAhmed-lf4jf]

Why nurses should not have to pay for their nursing degree? Please provide some ideas???

[@Ek0]

I hate the health system in the United States. There is too much profit seeking in the medical industry. Nurses are burnt out but thats because many hospitals are for profit businesses. Yes, perhaps you want to help people, but at the same time, you make health care inaccessible to so many Americans. Its funny talking to people from other countries who say "why dont you go to the doctor?" and I say "so they can do a bunch of expensive tests to tell me they dont know whats wrong?". There needs to be way less money in medical school, way less money flowing through health insurance, and sadly way less money flowing through hospital payroll.

[@KLAKLAWES]

WAIT * Compassion means suffer together= people who had the same experience can have compassion, otherwise is all fake/life experiences (pay attention that in some country a similar word it means "compass of Zion= mansonry") * To be a nurse, u must have a degree, and also experience for little things * Some people like to cure, not for something back... cuz it is the way they are * After that there is a doctor= no good situation= chirurgy * If u cant do it, u feel guilty= u cant be a doctor without experience= it die * And u die inside= like when u see a kid and it is alone, and u cant do nothing * In the end u grow and u begin to learn - Kids nowdays has knives and machineguns - If u want to cure, u must have experience.. a degree, and also be in the business - Cure someone is a business... also in religion= 80% of private hospital/civil health and so on... are under religion= u must ask permission - If u cant do it, u crush urself - So first the people u cure they crush u, than they cure u... cuz u crush on them= no sense at all= so first u pay in the mind (and the body suffer= cropore sano in mentire sana), than u must pay again to be cured or more taxes= NO WAY AT ALL * In the end u learn that (and u see it) - People when they die they call their mama - U start to not have compassion at all= see people (things) for what they really are - U begin to learn IF u can do it or not= or it becomes a challenge against urself= certain defeat - U know ur real competence... and u stop there - U cant cure people who are always looking for troubles... cuz in the end someone has to solve it/pay it= sometimes also life for a life - And pressure after pressure ur innerglass of the mind broke itself= DSM4= worthless - People who die can also breathe and walk... if it is a choice it is called suicide, if not none can give the right/low protection... ETC ETC... to kill someone PERIOD and FUXX OFF

[@kgaumont]

r u ok

[@cynthiadelacruz6392]

I believe that we should get those LVN back for less pay and these overpaid nurses is what’s causing our overpriced healthcare insurance. More LVN and CNA then less RN is the answer for more affordable health insurance in America. Haters will speak up but I’m telling the truth.

[@erinhundley9321]

This statement goes against all evidenced based practice guidelines. Numerous longitudinal studies show that RNs, especially with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree provide overall better patient outcomes, which in turn increases service reimbursement. Only travel nurses are “over paid”.