The Power of Nurses... and the Countdown to my Retirement

 

This week, from May 6 through May 12, we celebrate National Nurses Week, starting with Florence Nightingale's birthday.

The American Nurses Enterprise chose the theme “Power of the Nurses” to shine a much-deserved spotlight on nurses' impact and influence on healthcare, from the bedside to the boardroom, from novices to experts.

At the Blessing of the Hands ceremony, the nurses recited, “May our hands always bring healing. May they always be gentle. And may they always remember the power they hold—the power of a nurse.”

The hospital held a Super-Nurse Cape Competition as a fun activity. The cape is an iconic image symbolizing the compassion and caring of the nurses who served under rigorous conditions. It is a poignant reminder of our “super-hero” status during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but our powers never left. 

The power of our minds as we embrace new technologies, research, and evidence-based care.

The power of our vision as we promote professional growth, participate in the hospital’s strategic initiatives, and continue to make Nursing a loud and credible voice in healthcare programs.

The power of our hearts as we navigate nursing challenges through staffing issues and workplace violence, the power of our hearts to find our joy in the workplace, and the power of our hearts to put caring for our patients as our “why.”

The power of our hands as we healed and cared.

Our group of nursing educators from the Nursing Professional Development visited the different patient units with our Wellness cart filled with goodies (a variety of teas, granola bars, lip balms, pens, hand lotions, stress balls, lollipops, lavender sachets, and Skyflakes chocolate biscuits). A simple Thank You for a job well done. The smiles from the nurses, as they paused from their busy work, to engage with the educators: Priceless.

This Nursing Week is a turning point for me. A milestone of all milestones. It will be my last Nurses Week as an active-duty nurse. I have reduced my work hours for the past year and slowly inched forward to retirement. After 42 years as a nurse in the United States, I will retire this year at the end of July. Yes, 2025 will be, not next year. This is it.

It will be a great honor to join the ranks of those who retired to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I reflect on the great work of those who led the way, whose profound influence left an indelible mark on those they worked alongside. They touched many lives, dried many patients' tears (and their own), uplifted many hearts, celebrated their peers, endured the long hours, and overcame many challenges. They were powerful nurses; on their shoulders we stood and learned. 

A life spent in service is well-lived and blessed with immeasurable emotional rewards. Thank you to Paula, Cecil, Rosemary, Trish, and Avis for allowing me to use your pictures. They have many stories to share and precious memories to inspire. These ladies are legends in their own right, leaving a legacy of excellence through the years. 

Many more retired before me, and sadly, some who did not make it to retirement. I am humbled to have worked with them, from Coler Memorial Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Maimonides Medical Center, Mount Sinai Morningside, and St. John’s Hospital. 

It has been a wild ride. Promise, I will post more photos on my Retirement blog. What a journey it has been. My countdown begins.

 

 

Five Years Later: Surviving the Covid-19 War

Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I remember the day as if it were only yesterday. The memories are vivid in my mind; the heartaches of losing friends and numerous patients leave an emotional scar in our hearts that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. The fear remains that another pandemic might come and change our world again.

I wrote this about my burnout:

At the beginning of April 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic burnt me out. 

I remember waking up in bed, physically drained from a fitful sleep and emotionally shattered by the friends and patients we lost. I debated calling out sick that morning because I dreaded hearing the frequent overhead pages for the code team. For the first time in my long nursing career, I was at a crossroads I never thought I could ever be at; I thought of quitting. I wanted to run as far away as I could, away from dying patients, away from the heartaches. But I could not abandon my staff, so I stayed resolute in fighting alongside my courageous staff in that dreadful war.

Five years later, I feel privileged to be part of the army of healthcare staff worldwide who battled the war. Today, I browsed through the photojournals that chronicled our fight. 

Yes, we survived. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was just taking one day at a time, putting one step ahead, until finally, the vaccine came, and later on, we finally took off our mask.  

I am not the only one remembering that day. The burnout and the PTSD that followed were real. 

Five years later, these are just distant memories for most. I know that for all the healthcare workers who struggled through the "war," it was an emotional and challenging process to move on to the new normal. May we all support each other as we learn from the past, and hopefully, we will not have to go through this again. I celebrate the resilience of these nurses and all those who continue to make a difference every day.

We are bruised but still standing.

Covid Diaries:

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