Let’s get rid of the justas Are you a “justa”?

A nurse and I were talking about our high school reunions. She told me a former classmate had come up to her and asked, “And you are still just a nurse?” As she related the incident, she grimaced.

It reminded me of a recent conversation with another nurse. “I am just a three-year graduate,” she said. When I asked her title, she started to say, “I’m just a. . . ,”then caught herself and said simply, “I am a staff nurse.” Silently, I cheered.

I recalled the writers workshop I had partici- pated in this summer at the Colorado Nurses’ Association Chautauqua. It was a workshop for serious writers who had already published. Enough to intimidate anyone. At the start of the workshop everyone introduced herself. One woman said, “I am just a night nurse.” The group, which included some names in nursing you would recognize, let her know right away that they didn’t consider her a “justa” at all.

How often have you heard nurses use their educational background or position as a rea- son for not doing something? “ 1 can’t run for office, I’m justa. . . . I ’ “I can’t be on that commit- tee, I’m justa. . . .” “I can’t do that, I’m justa. . . .” Does that sound familiar?

Of course, nurses aren’t the only ones who suffer from justaitis. I am sure we have all met many women who introduce themselves with, “I am just a housewife.” However, I don’t recall ever hearing anyone say, “I am just a physi- cian,” or “ 1 am just a lawyer.”

With increasing pressure on nurses to con- tinue their education and to acquire degrees, justaitis may become an epidemic. It may be- come so serious, the Center for Disease Con- trol will have to launch an investigation. Perhaps they will discover that justaitis, like Legionnaires’ disease, is caused by a bacterium.

The next step will be the development of a

vaccine to be administered upon graduation from nursing school. If it is a long-acting vac- cine, it can be relied on to carry nurses through years of staff nursing and will probably be ef- fective in case a nurse wants to take some years off to be just a housewife or just a mother.

In the meantime, let us hear some praise for the justa nurse who works in the operating room. Perhaps she is a staff nurse. She is hard working and she performs her job compe- tently. She scrubs, she circulates. She may not feel comfortable doing preoperative interviews and assessments; yet, she is patient-oriented. During the intraoperative period, she carefully guards the patient’s welfare through thoughtful attentiveness to her job.

If she is young, she may aspire to the title and responsibilities that go with supervision. If she is older, she may have devoted some of her career time to raising children and attend- ing to her family. She may have spent years balancing the interests of job and family, perhaps shortchanging both at times. She may have been criticized for lack of professionalism because she didn’t have time for meetings, extra time to put in additional hours on the job, or extra money for attending seminars or workshops. At the same time, she may have missed the school play in which her child played a minor role. Perhaps she wasn’t home to comfort the child with a fever. And her house was never quite as clean and tidy as it could be. In middle age, she has justaitis.

Since the vaccine has not yet been de- veloped, perhaps we can mix up an antidote. In this medication, we can mix up such ingre- dients as a sense of job importance, pride in a job well done, and a dash of self-esteem.

If this antidote is effective, nurses will hesi- tate, then stop, before they utter “justa.” They will say proudly, “I am a nurse.” Or, “I am a staff nurse.” Or, ’ ‘1 am a diploma graduate.”

Let’s take “justa” out of nurses’ vocabulary.

Elinor S Schrader Just an editor

AORN Journal, November 1978, Vol28, No 5 805