NICU

I was scrapbooking today and found these pictures of my own little NICU grads and had to share. They serve as a constant reminder to me that my personal experiences are my greatest strengh at work. More even than my nursing skills or my (somewhat limited) work experience... my passion and my compassion are the cornerstones of my personal practice and I'm a better nurse for them. I'm sure there are those whom I work with who think I get a little too involved with some of my patients and their families, get too tied up in all the "drama" that happens in their lives, but I believe in advocating for those who can't (or won't) do it for themselves and I'm not going to keep trying to do that, even though I'm sure my methods may irritate some.

I guess I'm ranting about this because I don't always feel that I am effective at getting other people to care about the things that I sometimes think they should (as occurred in a situation involving one of my families yesterday). Perhaps the problem really is mine. I hold no illusions about my own shortcomings... I know I don't always have all the information I need to make intelligent decisions about certain things, and I know that I do get too emotionally involved at times. I'm just not sure that I should try to turn my feelings off because of those shortcomings. I guess all I can really do is to keep trying to do my best for the families I care for and try not to irritate my co-workers too much. I just want so badly to make a difference in this world, and my chosen profession is one of the ways I'm trying to do that. Hopefully everyone can relate or at least understand that.