Thursday 12 September 2013

The Nurses In My Life


As student nurses, there’s one question we’re asked more than any other: why we came into nursing. My story begins with meeting a number of truly wonderful and inspiring nurses, who showed me unlimited compassion and empathy during an extended period of acute illness a few years ago. It was these nurses who made a truly awful experience bearable: I will never forget how the mere sight of them walking onto the ward in the morning would immeasurably lift my spirits, regardless of how terrible I felt, or what awful things were in store. Not only were these nurses pivotal in my recovery, but they were also pivotal in what began as a momentary musing about joining the nursing profession, and the rest as they say is history.


Prior to my falling ill, I’d had limited contact with nurses - in those days, I would do absolutely anything to avoid encountering health professionals of any kind. Four years on and oh how things have changed. Through my nursing education and journey, I’ve been introduced to a plethora of nursing professionals: from lecturers, to clinical practitioners, to the nursing twiterati, and what an impressive bunch they are.

I’ve written previously about how awesome I find the lecturers at my university: I have, on numerous occasions, exited lecture halls feeling nothing short of intoxicated due to the heady sharing of knowledge and passion from such a driven group of nurses. I love being in their company, gloriously cocooned by their wealth of experience and wisdom.
 
Similarly, the nurses whom I have encountered out in clinical practice have been just as impressive. None more so than my most recent placement mentor, who quite simply, has been more inspiring, more brilliant, and more important than any other. First and foremost, she is a fabulous nurse: boundless in terms of her courage, commitment, caring nature, and compassion. In addition, she is a truly phenomenal mentor, and was obviously and completely invested in me and my education from day one. She is what nursing can be and should be about, she is the 6 cs and more, she is, the nurse that I want to be.

The nurses I have encountered, come to know, and love, don’t end there however: thanks to my preferred and solely-utilised social-media platform, Twitter, both my nursing life and development have been greatly enriched. I love Twitter. I can sometimes lose entire days to it - trawling through the unlimited ideas, thoughts, comments, and knowledge shared by whom I affectionately refer to as the nursing twiterati. Admittedly, I have my favourites, most Twitter users do, but I have come to depend on and immensely value all these forward-thinking nurses who are fiercely driven and passionate about the profession and their patients. Twitter has provided me with a robust and conducive support system and forum, without which I would undoubtedly be lost.

All those mentioned, are people who have saved, altered, informed, touched, and enhanced my life; they are, just some of the nurses in my life.

1 comment:

  1. I hear you on that! I think we all have a nursing mentor that we've worked with in school that sticks with us.

    Nurses are definitely a vocal and forward thinking group of people. I love giving advice to people who ask me questions from my website's blog or my Twitter account. Great post, great blog!

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