Nursing Identity in Wit - Essay Example

"Nursing Identity in Wit" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
‘Wit’ is one of the most remarkable plays and quite adequate for medical practitioners to watch. It is not only about the dramatic scenes unveiling in the life of Vivian Bearing but also a lot more about our modern medical practice. The play reveals how different medical researchers, doctors as well as nurses should work together in collaboration to achieve good results and remarkably improve on delivering services to the patients. Vivian Bearing and Susie Monahan are very important characters in the play. Vivian after being diagnosed with cancer decides not to give up the fight and undertakes the chemotherapy medical procedures. The procedures are tough and she almost gives up but thanks to Susie and her kind heart that despite other medics undermining and frequently critiquing her acts she is more than just a nurse to Vivian. Though not a professional nurse, she applies a sense of humanity when attending to Vivian as her primary nurse. Susie wants Vivian to be treated with dignity as a fellow human and not just a test subject. This dearly touches the hearts of the audience since Susie is that kind of a nurse everybody would want to be attended by for she not only portrays a good nursing image but also her strong belief that patients should be handled with ultimate care. This paper, therefore, reflects on how the play addresses different issues that affected Susie in the play.

Nursing identity or image

The nursing image has everything to do with the roles and identity of different individual nurses in the world. Different movies, books, and plays have in the past revealed different nursing images that can be associates with most individual nurses of the world. In the play ‘Wit’, Susie as a primary nurse portrayed several nursing identities. In the context of a professional, she had that professional image. She is motivated, trustworthy, and wants to be accountable for all that happens to Vivian. She is offended by how the other medical physicians handle Vivian as just a test subject and she often disagrees with them on how Vivian’s treatment should be undertaken (Edson, 1999). Also, Susie brings in that caring identity and reveals that all nurses are caring. In other words, she brings in an image of a nurse as a ‘ministering angel ‘. She chooses not to act as an intellectual but rather just provide the best healthcare service to Vivian with human decency (Edson, 1999).

Patient advocacy or the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and patient

 Professionally, a nurse should be a patient’s advocate since she is the one who spends most of the time with the patient. From the play, Susie is really a genuine advocate of Vivian. On top of the good relationship the two had developed, she often questioned the chemotherapy procedures administered to Vivian by the physicians and goes on to even stop some of them (Edson, 99). Such acts frequently landed her into problems with her fellow practitioners but she never stopped. She stands by what she believed was good for Vivian and continues to be her good advocate until her health significantly improved.

Nursing ethics or the law

In the different states of the world, there are various guidelines developed to help evaluate and monitor the conduct of the different individual nurses in the world as they carry out their responsibilities. It is aimed at achieving consistency in how different procedures are performed in different health facilities. In the play, Susie readily adhered to most guidelines a nurse should follow when undertaking their respective duties. She is always there with her patient most of the time whether during the day or night and makes sure she readily does everything required of her no matter how hard it is (Edson, 1999).

Conclusion

Susie is definitely an important character in the play ‘Wit’ and her character is quite important and significant not just to the play but also to our real world and especially to the current healthcare sectors of the world which have witnessed rapid changes in how things are being done.