What brought me to nursing

It's been a while since my last post. Time just flew by and there have been a few changes in my life in the last three years. The manuscript below is something I wrote to complete one of the requirements in one of my courses in grad school. These are my reflections on how nursing came to be my chosen profession. Hope you enjoy the read :)

What Brought Me to Nursing

My name is Ronela. I am 35 years old and I have been a nurse for 14 years. Reflecting on my life, from being a kid growing up in the Philippines to being a nurse living in the United States, I have come to the realization that it is my calling to become a nurse.

In grade school, I would be the one to treat my classmates’ cuts and bruises. There was one time when we had a lesson about herbal plants and we learned that guava leaves are good in wound healing.  When my friend had a big cut on her knee shortly after that, I rushed to plucked the leaves from a guava tree, made it into a poultice, and dress her wound with it. In our neighborhood, children would knock on our door and ask me to tend to minor injuries they acquired while playing. I would gladly get our first aid kit, clean, and dress their wounds. I was never queasy whenever I had to clip ones toenail that got peeled off as a result of playing soccer barefoot. I found it odd when the children would get sick while looking at the bloody forehead I was applying pressure on so it would stop bleeding. I was at my element during those times. I enjoyed caring for them. I was their nurse.

Also, I come from a family of nurses and teachers. My grandmother was a teacher. My mother, most of my aunts, and my cousins are nurses. The greatest of them all is my mother. She is a nurse educator. I remember when I was around five or six years old, I would often accompany her to the hospital where she worked as a clinical instructor. It was in the 1980s and having children at the nurse station was yet to be considered not permissible. I hung out at the nurse station for hours, oblivious to the activity of the ward around me.  The nurses gave me empty charts to play with. I would observe the nurse as they went on with their work and wondered how the nurses were able to get their white caps clipped to their hair.  I admired the nursing students’ handwriting while they are doing their nursing care plans. I remember asking one student nurse if I will be able to write script as beautiful as hers and she told me that I will when I grow up. I was their little mascot, entertaining them during their break time.  My mother is also a medical-surgical nursing professor. I would go to class and I would sit at the back of the room. She was so mesmerizing even when I had no notion of what she was talking about. There were also times that a group of her students would come to our house to have a review session for the upcoming board exams. I remember them, eyes fixed at my mother, intently listening to what she’s saying. The students loved her.

My mother is the greatest influence in both my personal and professional life. She had eventually become my professor when I took post-graduate advanced pathophysiology courses back in the Philippines. She was a magnificent teacher. She still continues to teach despite having speech deficits after suffering from a stroke several years back. She is my hero and mentor.

Despite her being in the nursing profession, I was never forced or pressured to go into nursing. With my mother’s example, I knew that I wanted to care for people, treat their wounds, and be somebody to rely on.  I knew I wanted to become a nurse.

I took my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in Makati Medical Center College of Nursing in Makati City, graduated in 1998, and passed the boards shortly thereafter. I came back to the home hospital where I graduated from a year later and was fortunate to get a critical care nurse position. A few years into my job, I noticed a need for a more structured education program for our staff in order to care for our patients better and to increase the staff’s morale as professional critical care nurses. This idea led me to obtain the position as a trainer for critical care, and eventually as a training coordinator for the whole hospital’s nursing division. I believe this is where I found my niche in nursing. I thoroughly enjoyed my job as a clinical educator. I did not realize how effective I was until I received numerous positive feedbacks from the nurses and my superiors, received invitations at local seminars, and became a resource speaker at  a national conference to present certain critical care topics. The nursing programs that my team and I developed are still in use today.

Priorities change when you have a family of your own. So in 2006, I let go of my professional fulfillment to start a new life in the U.S.A. My husband and our then one year old daughter joined me in this new adventure. I took a job as a critical care nurse here in Florida. Being a Filipino and caring for patients with different cultures, I still am marveling at the realization that nursing knows no color, race, or culture. I validated that caring indeed is universal. The act of caring calls for setting aside biases and discrimination because every individual deserves equal opportunity to be receive competent care. I love caring for the critically ill, but the call of teaching does not escape me. It is evident in my dealings at work as a bedside nurse, preceptor, and mentor.  Now, I am doing steps fulfill that dream of teaching again.

What keeps me in nursing today

I cannot imagine myself outside of nursing. This profession is noble, for the responsibilities are substantial and significant to the lives of others. Having experiences in the fields of nursing education and bedside nursing gave me an opportunity to care for both patients and fellow nurses. It gave me a wider perspective of the profession. On both junctures, my realization is that a nurse must live the values of commitment, compassion, patience, integrity, and honesty. Without these values, one has no place in this profession.

The nurse, in order to give care, must be competent. And to be competent, one must both be effective and efficient in one’s work. To be effective means to be able to communicate conscientiously; to be able to look past race, orientation, culture, and treat individuals like they want to be treated themselves. One must exude an air of compassion and commit to have an open mind and heart in order to easily adapt to the constant changes in nursing situations. In contrast, the nurse must also have a self-awareness of one’s limitations and learn to withdraw, if need be.

To be efficient, on the other hand, means to be able to perform nursing care prudently, appropriately, and in a timely manner. The nurse employs evidence-based practice. To achieve this, one must be in constant pursuit of knowledge and embrace research.

 Therefore, I can define my nursing as providing competent care with the intention of improving the lives of others. It is nurturing the nurse to reach one’s full potential. It is caring for the sick and their families with the intent of improving their state of health, and if not possible, maintaining their dignity in death.

My hopes and dreams for the future

            I am hopeful that in five years, I will be a clinical educator specializing in critical care. I want to be involved in staff curriculum development and nursing research. Nursing would undoubtedly evolve with the times but I am optimistic that I will still be involved in education, research, and critical care in the next 10 to 20 years. I intend to be the best nurse educator and mentor I can be. I hope to be somebody who my children can be proud of and who my colleagues can look up to and emulate. 

...I made these reflections last year. October of last year, I took the chance of applying for the position of clinical educator. Guess what? I am now the critical care educator in my hospital, and I am very happy that my plans are coming into fruition.