Climax

Waring: This post is pretty self-congratulatory.

Graduation was far more climactic than I had anticipated. Especially since I merely walked, I won't technically receive my degrees until August. A minor detail the director of the nursing program assured me, since there aren't any nursing positions right now anyway, and more time to study (read: more time to procrastinate studying?) for the NCLEX board exam for licensure. As close as I am to achieving my second degree, I would be academically bummed if I didn't go for the BA in Women Studies.

It's true, I miss the Women Studies atmosphere. Good old fashioned liberal academia, full of freedoms, individualism, empowerment, anger, human rights, attitude and political activism. I remember when I used to think that this was what nursing school would be about. Well now I know a bit more about that. I do feel that while nursing school has been a proverbial hoop, discipline, struggle, frustration, blood and sweat certainly do have their place in this world. I also realize that while a BA in Women Studies gives me an invaluable grounded position in this society, it doesn't--as readily--give me a job.

Enough negativity. Here is some positivity. 

I graduated! Did I mention that? My first bachelor's degree(s). I started down this road 8 years ago. First I dabbled in mathematics, primarily because I had a crush on my high school calculus teacher. Turns out I'm not great at math. So I switched to nursing, practical reasons; I could do well to take better care of myself, what classes would encourage that? Wait, do those classes offer a degree? A job!? Wooooow, I love nursing. Too bad nursing is really hard to get into these days. So I dinked around a bit, studied in the UK, became a doula, volunteered internationally etc. etc. Started a new degree in the meantime, and finally I was in [passed the perseverance test I'm thinking.] Two more-or-less amnesiac years later, poof! I can put some letters behind my name, never thought I'd see the day, nor did my folks.

There was even a grand culminating moment to all of this, my four and half minutes of small-scale fame. I was nominated by my peers and a faculty committee to give the student's commencement remarks. The only free-style speech at the ceremony. A responsibility traditionally offered to a graduate student in fact. So on behalf of 245 graduating BSNers, Masters, DNPers and PhDers I spoke the following words at my graduation last Friday:

_________________

What a privilege it is to speak on behalf of the various degrees of nurses having accomplished a major feat of academic pursuit and who are ready to re-join our greater community as a new and improved member of society. This is a ceremony of transition. Many of us are transitioning for the first time into the field of nursing; many others are transitioning from long standing nursing careers and are now here reborn as a nurse of a different color.

We are all functioning, contributing members of our healthcare system—no matter the political or financial condition. We are now officially a community of nurses who sometimes shared pain and suffering but who today share a sense of empowerment and great accomplishment. We transition through this stage in our lives together and with each other’s support so that we will be more capable of empowering others, namely, the patient populations we will soon disperse widely amongst us all, and contribute to a healthier society as a whole.

After all, nurses are patient-people.

It is also a great privilege to share this moment with an audience like you. Full of unconditional supporters: faculty, family, and friends. It is likely that without your encouragement, motivational, perhaps financial and certainly emotional support, that a few of us might not have made it. Nurses are strong, but we often require stronger support from those we love. Thank you all, for this.

I want to cheers to Nurse Flo, our founding foremother, in all her revolutionary glory, may we follow in her path and think of the little things that ease the discomfort of our patients as well think of the bigger things, and make room for more revolutions in healthcare. Say for example, advocating for a single payer healthcare system. And we again honor Miss Nightingale, and always wash our hands.

Today’s nursing graduations no longer involve the starched white cap ceremonies, but we know that we are part of an important tradition of care and expertise in our field. We do not need to denote our status in the field with this symbol of otherness; we are a community of healthcare professionals who meet our patients where they are in their process of health and healing.

Reflecting on what it means to be a part of this tradition of nursing, I often come back to 3  questions that frequently lurk when I am in a stressful nursing situation:

When is the best time?

Who is most important? and

What is the right thing to do?

Today I have the answers, they are universal, timeless, relevant to everyone and to me they represent what it means to be a nurse. They are from a children’s story adapted from a piece by Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions:

“Remember that there is only one important time, 

and that time is now. 

The most important one 

is always the one you are with. 

And the most important thing 

is to do good for the one who is by your side. 

For these are the answers to what is most important in this world. 

This is why we are here.”

oo la la ladies n gents

j o e y & j a n e

c a t a r i n a w i n e b a r , s p o k a n e

I like to tell people we met at the gym... when we were 12 and seated alphabetically in phys. ed.

But sometimes I tell people that we met online... because we reconnected, after growing up, via a mutual friend on facebook.

Joe Sheehan is my long lost crush, and I have new appreciation for Spokane. That 4 1/2 hour drive stinks. But we share it.

Fun, fun.

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