By: Barrie Quappé MPA, RN, BSN – Consultant/Director:
I became a nurse later in life. I was looking for a way to support our growing family with a career that also matched my love for people. Life can make you calloused and when I travelled to cities like New York, I saw people stepping over and even being rude to the homeless on the street. It really impacted me because I knew that homelessness can happen to anyone at any time. So, I began to search for a way in which I could care for fellow human beings. That’s when I decide to become a nurse.
Nursing is a privilege. Nurses know suffering and still stand by patients despite some work conditions such as low supplies, double-shifts, even nurse abuse by patients and higher-ups. It is not a career for the weak, but it is the most rewarding. A real-life experience that can make you a better and stronger person. Very few careers offer that.
I still have my licence but work as a healthcare consultant now. For those of you still at the bedside, I wish you a wonderful Nursing week and hope that you stay safe and remember to enjoy the reason you became a nurse, even through the most trying shifts.
To care, to serve and to help.