I’ve come to realize that nursing can humble you – real fast. I went from being a confident and competent emergency department RN to an insecure nurse trainee in an operating room.
Right now, I’m scared. I’m a nurse and my job is to face the beast the rest of the world is hiding from. Tensions are high and I adopt the anxieties of others.
I always dreamed of nursing in a fast-paced ICU, but had not thought about the deaths I would encounter in my role. No one warns you about them, or how traumatic they can be.
The speed with which I am compressing during CPR switches to the rhythm of the pop song playing on the clock radio by Tony’s* bed.
In 1989, i started working at a community detention centre as a correctional nurse. Up to then, I had 11 years of nursing experience, most of it in occupational health. Nothing prepared me for what I found locked away from society.
“Are you the nurse?” I heard a frail woman ask. I had just entered her room on the internal medicine ward. It was dark. “Yes, I am,” I replied, and gave her my first name. She told me her name was Donna.
Everything I know about being a nurse I have learned from my family. My mother is a primary care nurse in an outpatient oncology clinic.
In any sport, you have your all-stars. these are the big-name players who go out and hit home runs or make three-pointers. All-stars are a huge asset to any team, but they are not the only vital players for success.
I was born at Toronto’s Mount Sinai hospital in August 1995 with a lot of what society would refer to as ‘problems.’ But I like to think of my imperfections as awesome differences.
The final semester is done and my master’s degree complete. As i reach this academic milestone, I can’t help but reflect on how the journey to an MN has shaped my nursing career perspective.
From small villages to backwater hamlets, gathering places for the agricultural community have always been my home.
