Nurses should be role models

Japanese astronaut Chiaki Mukai yesterday urged nursing leaders to become perfect role models by focusing on healthy lifestyles and preventive medicine.

Mukai, who is heart surgeon by profession, told delegates to the 21st American Pacific Nursing Leaders’ Council Conference that nurses will be the people to which society would turn to to explain how best to live, to benefit and to practically apply the wealth of knowledge being accumulated by the life sciences.

She said this can be done by developing an industry that is based upon education, counseling and guidance. Afterall, life is a never ending-education.

“So I suggest you also continue your education — obtain further licenses, certificates, special skills, experiences which are visible to society so that people will recognize you, your work, your capability and your dedication,” said Mukai.

Similarly, in her chosen profession, Mukai said she has always adopted a positive approach in life believing that no matter what personal or professional endeavor she has, she will overcome any obstacle and challenges.

It never occurred to her that being a woman was a possible limitation or an advantage in being chosen to become an astronaut and conduct experiments aboard the US Space Shuttle.

In the next millennium, she said the nurses of the world will make a difference because they deal with life on a daily basis which gives them maturity and perspective others seldom achieve.

According to Mukai, the dedication, motivation and continuing efforts of nurses provide the much needed humanity in medicine thus, the idea that they are just assistants or helpers to doctors is wrong.

She cited as an example the time when she was working as a resident doctor in the cardiovascular division where they could not convince a patient who just had abdominal surgery to undergo another operation for his hemorrhoids.

The entire team — from the professor to the chief resident — tried to convince the patient. But each time, the answer was no. But it took the nurse on the team to truly communicate with the patient where she related her own personal experiences of hemorrhoid surgery.

“The point is that she was successfully able to relate to another, to listen, to understand, and to educate. Nurses put a human face to the sometimes-frightening specter of science,” said Mukai.