I was asked to talk about my experience of nursing and what I advise I would give to a newly qualified nurse at a meeting, as a delayed response to international nurses day. I was under the impression it was a no choice request & there would be several of us speaking but turns out, there were routes out of this request so it was just me and someone else. Given I had spent forever trying to work out what to say, I felt woefully underprepared, as my colleague delivered a stellar speech of all his achievements and general brilliance.
I had consulted several nursing pals who had suggested advise newly qualified nurses to find an alternative career but given I didn’t feel that was the intended vibe I decided against that.
But here is the thing, nursing is really, really hard. It’s tough to be inspiring nearly 30 years down the line, when you are worn out, about to go into yet another restructure, where jobs are on the line and morale is low. The respect that the general public once held, is diminishing, due partly to negative media coverage and the massive impact hangover from a pandemic.
I really reflected on why I started in my nursing career and I honestly can’t pinpoint the thing that made 18 year old me venture into the school of nursing. But I did and my naïve, sheltered little mind was blown. Of course I should say that I fell in love with nursing and never looked back, but that’s not quite the truth.
Nursing has given my life a relative stability, the constant requirement for learning and development has helped satisfy my curious mind, I have been privileged to be with people through utmost joy and utter despair, to learn and understand life in all its glory and all it’s gore. I am aware that in my nearly three decades of nursing I have only worn a uniform for two year and that my jobs have never really fitted the traditional view of what a nurse is. But the career pathways are vast and opportunities are massive, should you want to embrace them. And that is sort of what I ended up saying.
I like to think that in my job I have made life better for patients and their families. I like to think that in my current role, I am making things better for whole populations and being the voice for those whose are seldom heard. Would I do it again? Who knows but I certainly don’t regret it.
In other news, my nephew may have discovered the reason for the very high number of punctures we have been having, above being him recreating how he found the nail he was playing with on the way to school. So either we have really upset someone or someone has a warped way of entertaining themselves.
I also went to the first of the fiftieth celebrations, eight months before I arrive at my own milestone birthday. It was a good old fashion knees up, just dancing and cake. The highlight of the evening was sharing the dance floor with the birthday girl’s 93 year old great aunt. I hope that should I reach that age, I too will be dancing away into the small hours of the morning. She was the absolute epitome of a dancing queen.
Much love xx
The Frank Journals 