A Year of Stories

Being a compassionate nurse makes a difference because a nurse can save and change a person’s life with a simple act of kindness and skill. As a nurse practitioner, I mentor new nurses to practice safety and advanced techniques. As a nursing professor, nursing students look up to me as a role model and I enlighten their minds with knowledge of the capabilities and possibilities of nursing career. Patient care has improved by implementing innovative measures in preventing the spread of the pand…

I have always been, as an RN, an LD nurse. Since I was retired from a job I loved, I decided to do travel. My father was dying of cancer at the age of 80. I felt I couldn’t leave. As my sisters still work everyday, I became the daytime companion to my Mother. M-F 630A to 530P on the average. With the Covid, she very seldom leaves the house. I also have schooling with my granddaughter on Zoom because, even though Birmingham City Schooling is online, my daughter must go to work M-F. I really miss …

As a 80 year old retired nurse, I am sharing snippets of a few moments recalled from my nursing career. 1.) As a student in OB @ Chicago Lying In, I witnessed the surprise an older couple had as baby no 2 was delivered when they had expected only one; 2.) On the rehab. unit in first job, I remember patient Marge whose MS caused her false teeth to chatter when she spoke, made her wheelchair bound, but who always had a great attitude regardless of her situation; 3.) On a surgery unit, I surprisin…

ANA member 51 years – last 40 years I have been a Red Cross Nurse, specializing in Disaster Health Services as a Manager and local Northern California Advisor to Service to Armed Forces. Since Mach 2020 I have served on 8 deployments for disaster – all virtually – a new way of responding to disasters in our Covid-19 environment – I have been deployed to Michigan Floods, Oregon Wildfires, 2 times for California Wildfires, and 3 deployments on the National Integrated Condolence Care Team …

C.P. is a 41-year-old patient, husband, marine and father of two sons who is continuing to fight multiple myeloma at OLOL. He and his wife, R. wanted to take a vacation in Negril, Jamaica for one last trip but unfortunately his condition has not allowed him to travel. He shared this desire with the palliative care team during rounds one day and he asked if it would be possible for him to go. Sadly, the palliative care physician had to tell him that although she wished that were feasible, he was …