on my avoidance of medication in general

I'm not sure how well known of a fact this is, but I try to avoid medications at all cost (within reason, of course). I do this because I was raised with the belief that your body is trying to communicate to you a need, or a warning. For example, I avoid pain medication because I feel that your body is trying to tell you to stop doing something. I feel that blocking the pain receptors doesn't help deal with the long term issue at hand. My parents didn't offer me ibuprofen when I had shin-splints during track season in high school, but instead told me to stop running.

With that being said, I won't deny that I have caved before. I took immodium once because I had runs that made me lose 10 pounds. I received pitocen because my labor wasn't progressing after 10 hours of my water breaking. I took motrin 800s after delivery for several days. I fully believe in immunizations. Those are just a few examples. Again, I avoid medication, but within reason.

This doesn't mean I believe that everyone should do the same. This doesn't mean that I tell my husband no, or deny my baby her tylenol. This doesn't mean that I don't know how medications work. This doesn't mean that I think people who take medications are weak/stupid/uneducated. This doesn't mean I disrespect modern medicine. Most importantly, this doesn't mean that I will refuse my patients medication as a nurse.

I recently got into a huge arguement with someone in my career about this. Okay, it was more like an attack on my entire belief of medications. Here are some direct quotes: "How will you ever be a real nurse if you don't believe in using medication?" "What are you going to do when your patients are in pain, tell them to not eat meat and suck it up?" "So you're willing to let people pump pitocen through your veins, so you're wirthing around like a freak, but you won't take something to help you feel better?"

This 15 minute period of my life was horrifying. I was attacked on my personal beliefs on medications, on the sucess I will have in my career, on being a vegetarian, and on the way I chose to give birth. It was insane. I guess we all have our different opinions on everything under the sun. and I believe in respecting everyone in their beliefs.

As a nurse, I promise to believe that your pain is what you say it is. I promise to give you your medication accordingly, and to advocate for you in terms of more medication, in dosage or quantity, if it is insufficent to manage your pain. I promise to accept your refusal of medication, and help you find other ways to cope. I promise that I will be as cuturally competent as I can. I promise that I will listen to you, and respect what you have to say, and support you in your decisions.

As I would hope my nurses do the same for me.