Nurses reflect on what makes nursing ‘bearable’

In 1987, Mary Mallison, RN, then editor of the American Journal of Nursing, penned an editorial, which asked, “How can you bear to be a nurse?” In a blog post, AONL member Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, professor ad honorem at University of Minnesota School of Nursing in Minneapolis, reflected on Mallison’s words in the context of today’s daunting challenges. “I find myself rhetorically asking practicing nurses the same question Mallison posed then: How can you bear to be a nurse?” As Mallison once wrote, despite frustration, despair and anger, “you keep working at it, learning from it, knowing the next peak lies ahead.” Disch concluded by thanking nurses for their heroism. “Your colleagues…are in awe of what you are doing,” she wrote. (Off the Charts blog, 12/23/21)