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ProNurse Interviews: Bestselling Author and Nurse Bethann Siviter on Being Destined to be a Nurse

In the final instalment of our interview with Bethann Siviter we cover the attributes of being a good nurse and whether some people are destined to be a nurse.

If you haven’t read the first two articles covering the <a href = “http://www.pronurse.co.uk/education/articles/1784-pronurse-interviews-bestselling-author-and-nurse-bethann-siviter-on-improving-nursing-standards-and-the-48-hour-week-”>background to her books The Student Nurse Handbook and The Newly Qualified Nurse’s Handbook and <a href = “http://www.pronurse.co.uk/education/articles/1781-pronurse-interviews-bethann-siviter-bestselling-author-of-the-student-nurse-handbook-and-the-newly-qualified-nurses-handbook-”>preventing poor nursing standards, we suggest you read them before reading this article.

PN: I am continually inspired by the messages I get from ProNurse from members who have made huge sacrifices to study to be a nurse, many as mature students with children to support. Do you think that some people are destined to become a nurse even if their life took them on a different route to start with?

BS: It’s not the politically correct view, but yes. Why is it so difficult to believe that there are born footballers, but there are not born nurses? How is using a ball in a talented way any more of a desirable vocation than caring for people?

It’s not hard to believe that someone was born to be a golfer or a footballer, why is it hard to believe that people are born to be a nurse? My mother was a nurse. My grandmother was a nurse. My aunt was a nurse. I learned about the birds and bees from my mother’s textbook much to the chagrin of my primary school teacher! A student asked “Where do babies come from?” I raised my hand and starting going on about insemination, birth canals, pubic symphysis- I was 6. I was fascinated by the way the body worked and how nurses helped people, and made it “better”. I can still hear the teacher saying “Don’t storks bring babies?” And I said “So where does the placenta come from then?” I wasn’t an easy student!

I’ve tried other things because I didn’t want to become a nurse just because everyone else in my family had been one. Everything else I tried I just wound up turning it into nursing. In the end I just accepted the fact I am a nurse. That’s why I went to nursing school three times!

PN: Some of the feedback I get from ProNurse members is that some people have this need to be a nurse that they have ignored and done other things. They may now be middle-aged and have children to support while they are training, but they are running through walls in order to get on and do what they see as their true vocation.

BS: When you know what you need to be nothing else satisfies. I am essentially disabled now as my back is very bad. I still work as a nurse, but I often use a wheelchair. However, just before Christmas I saw a car accident take place where a man was hit by a motorcycle. I stopped and despite the fact that I couldn’t really get to the ground I did it anyway. There was a person who needed me and the adrenaline helped me to ignore the fact that it hurt so bad.

I assessed him and I realised that he was in serious danger because his trachea was not straight and he was struggling to breathe. I realised that he had broken ribs, probably had blood in his lung, he had an obvious dislocated fracture of his ankle which was bleeding seriously and there were all sorts of people gawping over him and smoking. He was lying on freezing ground with his clothes ripped open. I knew I had to prioritise, so I made a checklist in my head: ABC, bleeding, warmth, and started to go down the list. I dispersed the bystanders, got someone to apply direct pressure to the ankle and got him wrapped in a blanket. I knew he was at risk and he was really fighting to breathe and he was panicking. I put my hands on his face and told him “It’s going to be okay, just relax, calm down. Trust me, I’m going to take care of you, nothing bad is going to happen.

He said, “You’re a nurse aren’t you?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “Oh thank God!” And he just relaxed.

It was as if something happened when I touched him. It’s not the first time I’ve had a patient tell me that, and other nurses have experienced the same thing. It’s something to do with your touch. Somehow the person knows that you’re going to protect them. It’s a kind of love. It’s a different kind of love if that makes sense, I know it sounds hokey, but he did relax.

When he got to hospital the doctor said that he had blood in both lungs and if he had proceeded with the asthma attack he was having he would have died. This man once called me an angel, but I’m not an angel. I’m a well trained professional. I knew what to look for and I knew what to do.

I did end up having to spend three days in bed because I had completely scuppered my back but that’s really what nursing is, isn’t it? I hurt my back but I saved his life. I shouldn’t necessarily have that self-destructive streak but we do. Because when you get right down to it, the best thing about nursing is the patient.

I had a patient when I was a district nurse who was 103 years old. When she died her family sent me flowers and thanked me for making it so easy and I just cried. Because I remember someone said to me long ago that the most difficult times were birth and death. If you can do those right for somebody it makes a difference. Not just to the person but to their family. That’s the other good thing about nursing: We’re there at the times when people need someone who knows what they are doing to be there.

When I was in hospital there was one nurse that we called ‘The Grump’ who no matter what you asked her just said “Well, I’ve got needs too!”

One of the other patients in the ward was dying of cancer. She said something that I’ll never forget: “Some people want to work as nurses and some people are born as them and I really like it when the born- as- nurses ones are on shift!”

PN: Finally, what is the one thing you love best about nursing?

BS: When somebody looks at you and says “I’m glad you were my nurse” Second best, “I’m glad you were my mentor or teacher. “

Bethann would like to stress that the opinions raised during this interview are her own and not that of her publishers, or employer.

Both The Student Nurse Handbook: a Survival Guide and The Newly Qualified Nurse’s Handbook: A Survival Guide are available on Amazon.

Bethann is a member of ProNurse so you can network with her via her profile or ask her some questions via her Bethann’s Student and New Nurse Sanctuary group here on ProNurse.

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