I am a Nurse

I am a Nurse. But, I am certainly not a “nursey nurse.” I no longer provide hands on care. I work with people who have been injured on the job. I am compassionate and caring. I am motivational. I am brutally honest at times. That is what my clients need.

My career has taken me many places in nearly 20 years. I have been at the bedside. I worked in a medical-oncology unit just out of nursing school. I spent almost 5 years at a large pediatric institution in the NICU, PICU and research. The rest of my career has been spent in different areas of case management and nurse leadership.

There are days I don’t feel much like a nurse. I have not been at the bedside at all for over 3 years. The 3 years prior to that, I was only at the bedside in home care sporadically doing a few visits when staffing was tight. I don’t even have a stethoscope anymore. You see, my patients are on the phone. I call them. They call me. I teach them self-care techniques and help to find their internal drive to return to work following a work-related injury.

Even though I may not feel like a nurse some days, I am a Nurse. My brain is nurse’s brain. I think if you cut it open I would ooze of A&P, medications and chronic care pathways. These are the things inside me that I pull from each and everyday while I am working at home. Not only at home, but at home in pajamas! Yeah, I know, sounds like the best life ever, right?

Well, it kind of is! I have to be honest. But, better than that, I started writing. I found a coach and a tribe. Pretty amazing. And, now, I am on this journey of being a healthcare writer and I am loving every minute of it to be honest.

Even when I step away from nursing in the conventional sense, it never leaves me. I want to explore more of who I am, not just what I am, because, I already know that I am a Nurse.

Who are you as a nurse? I would love to hear about your role and who you have become as a nurse. Maybe you have been on the Med-Surg Unit for 20 years. Maybe you have just changed your specialty. Tell me what makes you tick as a nurse.