CATEGORY: Confessions of Me
I was pregnant during my final year of nurse practitioner school and set to deliver after graduation. I waddled along completing my residency during my final semester. The finish line was in reach and my hard work was paying off. Interestingly enough, my OB/GYN was gracious enough to let me precept with her during my pregnancy. In case you are wondering, yes, I was pregnant taking care of other pregnant ladies. This made for great conversations and interactions during patient visits. Anyway, I had it all planned out. I was looking forward to graduation on Saturday, December 15th. I had...
Few things make my heart beam with pride more than a satisfied patient. As a nurse practitioner, I am faced with patients who sometimes feel out of sorts when it comes to understanding my role. The extremes go from “Oh great, I saw a nurse practitioner at my family doctor’s office before! She was so nice and spent so much time with me. She is the only one I want to see now when I go to the office!” to “Uh oh, the nurse practitioner, I don’t want to see the nurse practitioner. Where’s the doctor?” The confusion seems to...
I cannot believe it has been 6 months since the launch of Confessions of a Nurse Practitioner! Thank you for being on this journey with me. We are halfway to a year and I have learned and grown so much! Now I know that we have all learned a lot considering how non-traditional this year has been. However, as it relates to this post, I am specifically, talking about the last 6 months as it relates to the Confessions of a Nurse Practitioner blog. Confess. Believe. Achieve. That is how it all started. In honor of this 6-month milestone, I...
No matter how many times you’ve been disrespected or treated “less than” because of your skin color, it hurts. The day a patient’s husband told me that he wasn’t seeing “my kind” was no exception. It was obvious that he was speaking for the patient as well as himself. It cut a little deeper given the raw wound I was already carrying given the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to name a few. It does not escape me that George Floyd could have very well been my husband and that Breonna Taylor could have been me. I bandage...
Have you ever done something and later looked back and wondered how you got yourself into whatever that thing was? Yeah, well that was me with Whole30. I walk with a few ladies in my neighborhood in the mornings for exercise and support. The comradery is wonderful too. It’s true what they say, we are better together. It helps having accountability and like-minded people rooting for you. Never mind, the fact that it’s still dark outside at the time we walk. There is safety in numbers, right? Anyway, I digress, back to Whole30. So one of my dear walking friends,...
Undoubtedly, when you think of famous nurses, Florence Nightingale comes to mind. After all, she is the founder of modern nursing. Not only did she open the first official nursing school and save countless lives, but she also made nursing a true profession. In fact, nurses week is celebrated yearly starting on May 6th and culminates on her birthday on May 12th! However, there are many other nurses who have had a tremendous impact on the profession and the world. In honor of Nurses Week 2020, I invite you to learn more about pioneers in the nursing profession. It is...
If you’ve read the post entitled Why I Became a Nurse that story continues here. You may recall what influenced me to become a nurse and my journey getting there. If you haven’t read the post prior to this one, definitely go check it out. The decision to go to the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) was not without sacrifice. I was living in the Birmingham area, in a city named Calera. Calera is roughly 133 miles from Huntsville. At the time my husband was a high school math teacher and basketball coach. Going to school in Huntsville would...
I delivered and buried my firstborn son in that February. Later that year, I buried my mom early December, just a few days before my birthday. I entered a depression. I was at a cross roads and really didn’t know what I was going to do with myself or how to do anything with myself. I was lost. I was without my baby and my mother. Despite this, I managed to put what focus I could muster on helping my dad and my two younger brothers. At the time my youngest brother was in high school and my middle brother...
