No words. This vacation was absolutely the perfect getaway and the best part about it was that I got to share it with my cousins. We got lost, we relied on our trusty Huawei, we ate what we could creatively muster up, even without any spices. We were without parents and it was exhilarating to taste that kind of freedom. The black sand beaches are one of the things that Iceland is known for and walking upon the shore was surreal. They warned us not to get too close to the waves, but there was something mesmerizing about standing right at the edge and letting the foamy waves creep up slowly. This walk was one of those things I probably will never forget… only because it was so long haha. We walked for almost an hour with the same view, white clouds and blue sky, a sliver of the ocean, and black sand. We didn’t see the plane until we were a 5 minute walk away. It took forever, but it was a nice way to talk to each other. Diamond beach was another unforgettable place and regrettably, we couldn’t stay longer. It was too cold! It started raining too…
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NLN Summit 2018
#1: Nurses can do anything. #2:we’ve come this far from standing on the shoulders of giants. It’s our duty to do the same for the next generation. Still on a mini high after attending the #NLNSummit2018 in Chicago. Our keynote speaker was Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent Adams. The journey of her nursing career is humble and where she is now is a testament to how important nurses can be, especially in the political realm. I was captivated during the entire time she spoke and I definitely was inspired to do more than what I have planned so far so that I can make a similar, if not greater impact in the nursing realm. I hesitated coming to this conference because I wasn’t sure if it was the right one to go to, even though I am adamant about following through with a nursing education career. I was surrounded by doctorally prepared nurses and I felt like an ant in comparison to what they all have accomplished. I even met the authors of the textbooks that I read in nursing school! I used to be a bit annoyed that older nurses held the curriculum of new nurses when the information that…
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Tougher Skin
Yesterday, I cried for the first time at work. An irate family yelled at me and made a scene on the unit. And for whatever reason, I took it personally. As I helped make sure that my patient in another room took their morning medication safely, out of the corner of my eye I see this particular person come in with their other family members and I hear her yell, “I want to speak to the nurse.” I couldn’t come out of the room at that particular moment, and so I peek my head out of the corner of my other patient’s room because I could sense she was upset/anxious and yell, I’ll be there in a moment, I’m helping another patient right now. Not even thirty seconds later, I hear her yell again, “Where is the nurse? I WANT TO SEE THE NURSE NOW.” Without trying to make my other patient feel any less important, I tell them to not feel rushed – that I would stay in the room until he finished his medication and that I help him with whatever else he needed at that moment. At the same time – not even another ten seconds later,…
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MSN.ED
I finally got it done 🙂 Every time I accomplish something big like this, I feel this surge of pride for having overcome all the long nights and long shifts. I worked full time for more than half of grad school and I can’t believe I got through it. I remember driving home from LLU and crying – crying because I had just finished a crazy hard shift and still had hours of studying left to do at home. I remember sitting up on the parking roof top looking at the sunset, trying to clear my head, trying to find clarity and purpose for all the madness I was inflicting upon myself… I remember the anxiety I had when I was transitioning to my dream hospital from a hospital that had become a dream to me… In just two years, I could not have imagined how much change I would trek through and how painful those growing pains would actually be. But I did it 🙂 And now comes the, “now what?” Sash – you have your Master’s degree – a goal you had when you first started nursing school. Now, you’ve completed it just about three and a half…
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Professor M?
It’s not a secret that I don’t like public speaking. And it’s pretty ironic since I chose the path of education for my graduate degree, where I’ll probably have to do a lot of that. A week before I needed to present my lecture, I got to talking to one of my patients, who conveniently used to coach performers and singers on improving their “presence”. As we got to talking, she started to probe into the reasons why I lacked so much confidence, when it seemed evident to her that there was so much I wanted to offer my students. I even had to practice in front of her! She gave me the most solid advice that I didn’t even know I needed… She said, you need to believe that what you’re saying is important and the things you want to pass on are what they need to be good nurses. *cue mike drop* Obvious, right? I’m about to graduate with my Master’s and before deciding on this path, this was exactly the reason why I chose this part of nursing – because I wanted new nurses and nursing students to know not only the challenges of this profession, but…