It's true, you need not be a physicist to be a nurse. It's hard to imagine though, that we could do without MRI Scan in the hospital if someone with a particular illness needs it. We can be quite "helpless" in the absence of these "machines". It's even harder to imagine designing MRI machine without a physicist; really hard. You need not know Hamlet to be a nurse too, but yet you are bound to bump into Hamlet, as you take English as part of the prerequisite to enter the nursing curriculum.
So, why physics and nursing? What is the connection or disconnection, here.
What am I trying to say here. Perhaps, what I am endeavoring to elucidate is that, even-though the amount of physics/chemistry/Hamlet one need to know in order to function as a nurse/interior designer/janitor/president of the US may be minuscule compare to that of a trained physicist/engineer, learning about these subjects, provided there is a yearning, reflects the nature of our species, mankind. We as a species, regardless of professions, yearn to learn, irrespective of the presence of any practical implications.
One might ask, "so?".
There is always that curiosity....
ReplyDeleteAnd curiosity + A Ready Perception = Discovery.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928. His serendipitous discovery has at least two components, the quality of curiosity, and a mind in the state of readiness. To an untrained eye, what happened on that petri dish is "nothing" but some moldy "stuffs".
May be one or two nurses will discover something that would control.....say MRSA? On that note, there is already some new promising development in our "fight" "against" MRSA,....researchers found some powerful chemicals in the rind of pomegranate, according to one article in NatGeo......FASCINATING!!!
Namaste, my grateful reverence for Minerva for her entry.
No, you don't have to be a physicist to be a nurse, however the reason for taking all the baseline courses is to give us a well rounded background, along with our nursing foundation of knowledge so that we might make informed decisions and communicate from a solid base.
ReplyDeleteIf you only learn om a vacuum, then you are not speaking with complete knowledge. People need to know as much as they possibly can before making decisions that will effect the rest of their lives. Sometimes even a simple decision can cause an avalanche of events either positive or negative. Understanding how the "world" works can broaden our horizon so that the decision that is made does result in a positive outcome.
Well, Physics is one of my fave things to learn about. Physics can be viewed at the macro and micro level. At the big (macro) level, it does not seem to apply to nursing except for MRI's, CT scans, etc... which seems foreign to nurses.
ReplyDeleteBut, at the micro level, many unexplored levels exist. For example, the presence of a nurse, family member, or caregiver create physiological and measurable changes in the person, even in unconscious patients. Also, nursing has energy balance disturbance diagnosis which revolves around many NYU nursing studies. Considering the body in a "physics" view as a large body of particles interacting with each other and learning about those interactions could be the answer to our health, longevity and most other questions...
Wow, Phil, I think I have met my long lost mate in the world of nurses "intellectuals", or Quasi-quasi-intellectuals. The insights above are cathartic for me......the word cathartic and [intellection] or mental experimentation go together, right?....
ReplyDelete