My husband calls me his cactus flower (or sometimes his prickly pear.) It really has multiple potential interpretations depending on the day of the week or whatever life circumstances we're in. One of my grandmas, who was a nurse for 40+ years and has been a constant support and inspiration to me, recently reminded me, in one of the hardest seasons of my life and career, to "bloom where you are planted, I know you always do."
These words sunk in deep as I listened to them over the voice mail she left me when I missed her call. We try to chat about twice a month. She tries to call me on the 1st, the day of the month I was born, and I try to call her on the 17th, the day of the month she was born. "Try," unfortunately, is the key word because neither of us remember or make the time to do it as often as we'd like. But at least we try! We both have October birthdays, so that is something special we share too.
I definitively decided to become a nurse when I was a junior in high school. The day I officially decided where I intended to go to college is a day I'll probably write a whole separate post about entirely. That day left quite the impression on my life, and I didn't fully realize it's significance until I had been working as an RN for a period of time first.
When I embarked on my journey to northern CA to begin my career, I was in search of adventure, opportunity, and experience. I had very little idea of the kind of experience I would get, but I had a strange confidence that it would serve an important purpose. It may have been ignorance just blindly leading me, but I was open to many possibilities. I honestly assumed I may need to take a job in a nursing home if nothing else just to get my feet wet (not to down play nurses who work in long term care!) I just had very little certainty of what to expect, and I knew any experience would benefit me along the way.
My other hope was to develop connections either through church or the medical field with those who provided nursing/medical services overseas. I had once envisioned myself as a full time missionary when I grew up but now felt like nursing provided just as much potential to help me serve abroad someday. I have now travelled to Nicaragua twice with a medical mission team working as a nurse. I've had to take a break from travel for now because of the season of life we are in, not to mention COVID, but my hope is to be able to incorporate much more of that into my career down the road.
One of the things I love most about nursing is how diverse the opportunities are that you have to consider when exploring potential job options. Much to my surprise and with a fair amount of reluctance, I landed an ED job as a new grad. You can imagine it being a little bit of a shock to have that opportunity available when I thought I would probably need to work Med/Surg or in a nursing home.
The ED can be a little bit of a sink or swim environment, and I'm convinced that I wouldn't have survived in too many ED settings other than the one I was planted in! I had an amazing preceptor! He was supportive, knowledgeable and has a nack for mentorship! You don't know how much you appreciate that until you lack it! The ED was just big enough to have a wide variety of seasoned nurses blended with younger ones, and various room assignments you could receive, so you could gradually work up to taking care of more critical patients.
Because I was cared for well as a young nurse, but had enough exposure to a few nurses I was really glad weren't my primary preceptors, I found myself really enjoying and being passionate about mentoring and having nursing students follow me! I have now been a preceptor in the ED for new grads and new nurses for several years. It is not always easy, but I usually enjoy it a lot! I think I would really like teaching too, but that will definitely be for a different season.
After having a pretty poor training experience to a job and environment I wasn't as familiar with at a more recent job, I volunteered to assist in improving their training program and process. Rural environments are notorious for struggling with things like education because they are usually short handed and everyone has many hats to wear! This can make these locations great places to learn but not always because you're learning the easy way.
I thankfully have been nursing long enough in these types of settings to not be intimidated by (just extremely familiar with) that dynamic. On the contrary, I've learned to optimize opportunity for improvement and attempt to bring fresh perspective and insight in these situations.
This approach is refreshing for some to see, and yet alarming to others, who are more concerned with or easily disturbed by the uncertainty of change. I'm also well acquainted with the response from parties on either side of that equation. What I find most important is not to be offended by unpleasant responses. These are often very predictable and common responses. I have found that when you expect the inevitable, it sets you up to be more successful with your endeavor to see progress made and goals achieved.
Facing obstacles is not something to shy away from, but, often, instead a good indicator you're headed in the right direction! So much can be learned from these uncharted territories and excursions into the unknown!
With that being said, it is much easier said than done when you find yourself in the murky water with minimal visibility of what's ahead. You have to rely on your training and experience, trusting that where you've come from will be enough to see you though to the destination.
I'm not sure this process ever feels easier in the moment. However, I can attest to the fact that having prior difficult experience can be a helpful reminder that there is often much new beauty on the other side of enduring pain or seasons of trial, mistreatment, or discomfort.
Childbirth is a glorious example of this. The pain often seems unbearable when bringing life into the world. Oh, but the reward on the other side... it causes the pain to fade quickly and to seem but momentary and all worth while in the end! These types of examples keep me interested in appreciating whatever I can about any given circumstance, even if it's simply knowing there may be joy on the other side, something unexpected waiting around the corner, or something breathtaking awaiting to blossom at just the right moment in what seems like the desert.
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