It's New Year's Eve -- or at least it is for me

Yes, I know that it is really February 25, 2012 -- not really New Year's Eve, , but for me it is the eve before a "new year" dawns for me.   Actually, Monday my "new life" starts, but tomorrow will just be cleaning out the cobwebs of my "old life".   

For the past 18 months or so, I have been in nursing management.  I liked the Monday - Friday concept of it, and thought it would give me more quality time with my family.   But I was so very wrong.  Not only do the weekends wind up being absorbed with work or work-related activities, but my days don't end at 5 or even 6 .... and I have missed more of my family time than I ever expected.    Sure, the money has been great and "constant" unlike doing shift work, but it really isn't that much more.  And, if I need "more" money for some reason, I can just pick up an extra shift or two.   But I am excited to go back to what I love doing most --- taking care of patients one on one.   I won't need to worry about what services or how many visits their insurance allows --- I'll just get to take care of them and meet the immediate needs of the patient and their family.     It's what makes me happy.  It's what I was born to do.   

I received an e-mail from a patient I had nearly 2 years ago.  She had been in the unit with some cardiac issues and I sat down and explained the circulatory system to her because she just didn't understand what congestive heart failure was.   I drew pictures and explained how each of her medications affected that cardiac cycle.    She wrote me the e-mail around Christmas time 2011 because she had found my drawings and my notes about her medications.    She told me that she had not had a re-hospitalization in the 2 years since I explained everything to her.   It was that e-mail that really started me thinking that I needed to return to bedside nursing.   

So, not only did I quit my management job to make a return to bedside nursing, I made a list of my priorities.   I am going to post that list in the visor of my car and in the front flap of my calendar and wherever else I can so that I will always remember what things are most important to me.    Because, in the end, what you do for others is the only thing that will last.   We are put on earth for relationships; that is what makes human unique.   So, Happy New Year to me.    I plan on seeing all of my friends and family a lot more this year!