I see now that I have been on this path from my early days in nursing.
I am not only a nurse and practice nursing, I am an observer and student of nursing. And I find nursing and its world to be fascinating.
Maybe it’s because I came from anthropology (where environments are studied) to nursing. I initially thought nursing was a straightforward practice profession, providing a service to those in need. But I immediately caught on that it is a profession bound by societal needs and caught squarely in the middle of one of the most complex industries in existence, our healthcare system.
I have been studying my nursing experiences, and those of my peers and others all along.
I understood the magnitude of what we as nurses were experiencing when I heard Emmett Murphy, author of Leadership IQ, in 2000 at a VHA Leadership Conference state that, a) the healthcare system was the single most complex industry there was (over aeronautics, government and others) and, b) the acute care nurse leader had the single most complex job over all other jobs. I thought, “WOW, no wonder we’re so tired and frustrated.”
Since then I have continued to watch nursing and the healthcare system evolve in their complexities. And I have marveled at how varied each nurse’s survival and effectiveness develops. Each of our journeys is different.
What I have come to know is, for nurses to thrive and grow, we need self-awareness and clarity about what is happening around us and within us. And I know that there is little opportunity to sit and explore these skills at work or in school. The Internet just may provide a new path for nurses to connect and grow within a community of nurses.
That’s how I got here…. Welcome.