I (and a few other oncology nurses) was asked by a nursing student to come speak to nursing (and pre-nursing) students at this place...
There was quite a turn out! About 85 nursing students got to ask questions of "real nurses" about things that are really on their mind. Why did you want to be an oncology nurse? How do you balance your time running between patients? What do you say when a patient starts crying? What are some of the wrong things to say? What do you do to keep yourself from going crazy/getting depressed when your patients do bad? What do you say if a patient has different religious beliefs than you do? What if you hate your boss? How do you cope? What was the scariest thing you saw or did?
The panel consisted of a MSN student (that's me!!!), an oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist (Aran), an oncology research/drug nurse (Sandi), a PhD student (Carlin), and an oncology nursing school teacher (Paula). I must say, I was honored to be on the same panel as these fire-cracker impressive women!
The student who had organized the event was inspired by her mother who is has been battling cancer and now is in remission. Her mother (holding the flowers) spoke about her own memories, the things she could not remember, "chemo-brain", and showed brave pictures of her throughout her journey; pictures of hair loss, infected fingers from poorly done finger sticks, port insertion, side effects of steriods, and the tears as she shaved her head once the chemo kicked and her hair fell out. The room was in awe. This experience was moving. The stories the nurses shared, the insights and questions the students gave us a glimpse in to, and the personal journey battling cancer was powerful.
So HAPPY NURSES WEEK to all you powerful, beautiful, strong nurses!!! (oncology or otherwise!)
