I kissed my husband long and slow tonight. Been figuring out that man’s lips for 17 years and 7 months, to the day. What a ride.
Raising a gaggle of pre-teen gals is quite the roller coaster.
It’s now Christopher’s turn to leave town, and I must figure out the logistics of work and school pick-up and meet-the-teacher and pickleball and and and. My favorite moment thus far: teaching my class at the community college and looking out the window to find that my children have successfully walked across town to meet me, which included a stop for coffee on the way and a chat with my friends, who texted me my kiddos’ status and whereabouts. I LOVE THIS TOWN.
What my husband and children did not tell me, while I was away, was that they went to the shelter to return the borrowed cat items from last weekend and came home with another cat. This one shared a home with ours before she was surrendered, and apparently we needed to do the right thing and give them a reunion. Are we cat people meow?
I picked up the baby on my way through town, after driving home from the conference. The older kids are in youth group now, so Wednesday nights are just for us.
The sun had come out to play and we drove home with the sun roof open. I looked over and make a remark at how nice her hair looked. It’s been like this the whole time you were gone, she said. It’s from when you did it. I’ve just been sleeping on my back.
I laughed over the sound of the music and the wind rushing by. Oh, my love. I remember doing the same thing when I was your age and my mama went on a trip. It was yesterday and a lifetime ago, but I remember.
The healthcare industry is facing unprecedented challenges. Now, more than ever, we need support. We are sick of words like unprecedented and phrases like now, more than ever.
Nationwide, the healthcare sector has experienced a workforce loss of close to 25% during a pandemic which is not over. More than 50% of the workforce that remains is considering its exit strategy.
As a nurse, I will speak to what I know.
Nationwide, nurses are tired of working under crippling, unreasonable state and federal regulations. They are tired of being assaulted at work by patients, families, and coworkers. They are tired of going twelve hours without water, food, or bathroom breaks. They are tired of being asked by society to be an insufficient and ineffective band-aid for a healthcare system whose infrastructure has been broken for decades and crumbling for years.
Seasoned nurses are retiring a decade sooner than anticipated, and new nurses are the most likely to leave the profession. Even if there were enough nursing programs out there (there are not) to produce an overwhelming crop of fresh and eager talent, the need for experienced nurses is statistically critical, exponentially greater than any solution presented thus far. Time and experience are the greatest teachers, and we’ve run out of both.
These are the darkest days I’ve seen in my career.
And so I will continue to go to work each day, fighting for a better future for nurses and the way we deliver healthcare. My weapons are transparency, creativity, tenacity, and hope. Because hope is a strategy some days, especially on the darkest ones.
I drove to Girdwood for a conference today, and the fall foliage moved me to happy tears more than once. Alaska is bigger and more expansively beautiful than can possibly be described or photographed. But still we try.
