Synthesis!!!

I feel like this is the aha moment of the quarter. What did we learn, what did we achieve... But fist I would love to say thank you for the opportunity to have this blog. I was always intrigued by people that had blogs and blogged, and now I can say I have a blog too. My blogosphere real estate is secured.

How did my initial goals turn out and how did they relate to each other? Lets take a look...

Travel nursing will probably always be somewhere in my brain throughout my whole life. Being able to combine work and travel sounds somewhat ideal to me. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time looking at nursing positions literally around the globe. I think this search taught me a handful of things, 1. That is takes a lot of organizing to get yourself an international position. 2. To keep an open mind about countries that accept travel RN's. 3. Don't discount travel nurse volunteering. The thing I learned that was the most interesting to me is that I was looking the opposite direction of most international travel nurses. I am curious what lies outside the United States, while most people are trying to claw their way into a United States Registered Nurse job. However, I did find a very nice compilation of websites that deal with non-US international nurse placement.
Travel is always fun because you get to see how other people live. I feel like travel nursing would be fun because you get to see how other countries nurse. What are the other attitudes and responsibilities held by nurses around the globe. I always love coming home after being away. I feel like I always incorporate one new thing into my home life. So we'll see what happens and how it goes, but at least I investigated and gave some light into what interests me!

                                                             How can you resist!!

Self care was especially nice to call attention to. I think it gets shuffled away and can easily be forgotten. Blogging about it though really calls to importance the beauty of self care. Whatever you think self care entails, is what self care is for you. It is incredibly subjective. Putting on your own oxygen mask first is an important life lesson. I don't think I learned any new ways to self care, but what I really took away was the importance of the self care. As we care for others for so long, it is important to care just as much for ourselves. For me I think self care involves: warm showers, cooking, relaxing with friends, grocery shopping (I really enjoy it?), going for walks, good coffee, drawing, thinking about dreams for the future... In fact I think I could spend my whole life doing those 8 things and be happy. Recently my self care got even better because we added a little wood burning stove to our family! We looked at them in the showroom and they were $2,600, then we looked on Craigslist and got the same stove used for $450! I love the heat a cast iron stove produces and it is beautiful to sit working in front of a fire (like I'm doing right now). Whatever it is that you enjoy and replenishes you is self care. I'm sure as life goes on my list will grow but for now those are what they are. I hope to truly take away the importance of self care and NOT FORGET it!!

          You are all welcome to come over and sit by the fire, but bring a book and expect tea

Sheath's... so I got to vent about the situation as a way to express my feelings. While I don't have any immediate change in circumstances, I feel like I have a better grasp going forward. I will try to educate myself as much as possible. I also feel like I have a game plan to step up and try being resource nurse aka "Sheath nurse" after we finish school. Beth had a great comment that sometimes realizing you don't like something is enough. I could say to myself, yes I don't like it and that is fine. Knowing that is an option takes the pressure off. I want to tackle this issue as a way to feel like a fully rounded cardiac nurse. There is so much to know as nurses that it keeps us smart engaging in the world around us. I think I am still ready to learn more things and tackle new challenges. I'll get there in due time and that is just fine. I remember when I first started working as a nurse for some reason giving blood transfusions really scared me. Recently I did four transfusions on a shift and it was no problem. I look forward to that same transition with sheath pulling.

                                                               The measly little sheath

I also really enjoyed our post on beauty. Especially because I got to see what everyone else thinks is beautiful. The simplicity of sitting in my backyard and taking it all in was fun. I feel like I do that out of curiosity or because I am working in the yard. But I really enjoyed just sitting there with the intention of soaking up it's beauty. In a few months I will be out there all the time. Once the sun starts shining I sit on our picnic table under the cedar tree and enjoy the day. Or I'll put a sun chair in the middle of the lawn and read a book. Or I'll plant more things in our garden, or I'll... ok I digress...

                           Front yard paradise, complete with hammock (not visible in this picture)

Thank you all for a great quarter. It was really fun writing about a variety of things. I especially liked reading all your responses to my posts. It is interesting as nurses, that we all work in the same field (and all have the same license) but we do different things and encounter different stressors. Yet we all need to take care of ourselves, find beauty in the world around us, and make meaning of the crazy situations we encounter. Thanks for being such good sharers and listeners, this was truly a joy!

Empathy

I have, as long as I can remember, believed that we all learn to be empathetic. I don't think that we are born empathetic people or not. I think that this belief makes me hopeful for the future. I like thinking that humanity has the capacity to become more caring. Especially our role as nurses, requires a deep understanding of this skill.

I'm always reminded of this when bad things happen to me. Recently our cat has twice passed out and appeared to be dead. The first time this happen he spontaneously woke up a few minutes later after I thought he was definitely a goner. Then when I was at work in January he did the same thing, except Marcus was home with him. He appeared to have died, so Marcus rushed him to the Emergency Vet around the corner. They put him on a heart monitor, which showed he was severely bradycardic for a cat. He was completely non-responsive and they prepared us to have to put him down in the morning. It had to have been one of the saddest things I have gone through. We cried and cried and cried. He proceeded to wake up the following morning and has been fine ever since. However, this experience with our cat has made me so much more empathetic to my sick patients and their families. If I felt grief stricken and helpless with our cat, I can only imagine how it must feel if it was your spouse or parent. Even though it is so easy in our field to get burnt out from always caring and giving to others, I think it is a highly respectable position in life.

Another instance that reminded me to be empathetic recently as well was getting quasi food poisoning. We went to a friends house for a holiday dinner. I made a spiral ham, everything was going great until we got home. I puked and puked and puked for hours. Luckily I had the next day off work. Sitting next to the toilet feeling nauseous for hours is enough to make you go running for Zofran when your patient tells you they are feeling nauseous. Being reminded of how much suffering sucks in your own life, makes your a more empathetic person to your own patients. Not that I am recommending going through every painful experience in life just to make you a more caring individual. Instead when something bad happens then you can take it into your own practice.

I think a large part of not loosing our empathetic edge as nurses is not over working and taking good care of ourselves on our days off. We should be just as empathetic towards ourselves as we are to our patients. So the various goals for this quarter come together in an interesting way. That taking care of ourselves makes us able to be more caring and empathetic towards our own patients. The airlines really do have it right, when they tell you to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting those around you:)

Maybe I am just optimistic, but I really do aspire to continue becoming more empathetic towards others as my life goes on and as my nursing career goes on. I think you are never too old or young to get better at this. And if you need a reminder, you can always think of a sick pet or yourself getting nauseous.