Is mentoring really the most essential task in nursing? Probably not, but it’s this month’s theme and I’m willing to make a case for it: Nurses too often mistake the most pressing issue for the most important issue. Even the NCLEX hammers away at the now, as if “What would you do next?” is the only important question in nursing. At times, absolutely, we need to do what has to happen most badly right now: work the Maslow, do some triage. When we let such important tasks become EVERYTHING to us, though, we create many future crises and fail to prevent many more. In this way, we worsen our future. At worst, it becomes a free fall into permanent crisis, and the only relief comes with retirement. Some crises are inevitable, but far from all. Sadly, many nurses take their permanent crisis as evidence of inevitability: we can’t get ahead because we’re too busy to get ahead. It’s not our fault! It’s both tempting and popular to avoid responsibility that way. People who move ahead in life embrace responsibility because they know that it’s a valuable resource. Mistakes and areas to improve: they offer us places entirely under our own control that we [...]![]()
