I live in South Bend, Indiana, home to Notre Dame's "Fighting Irish." My first job in the nursing profession was as a nursing assistant, at the age of 17. I admit, at the time, I didn't like it much. I found the job to be hard, messy, and thankless, and I lasted less than a year in that capacity. I wandered from various jobs for the next few years, doing secretarial and accounting work, and designing display ads for the local newspaper.
I was re-introduced to the nursing profession under circumstances which were very painful and difficult. I was mourning the deaths of my mother and of my best friend, and I was also facing the imminent breakup of my first marriage. I was, to put it quite mildly, depressed. It was my therapist who suggested to me that I find an outlet for my grief by doing volunteer work. I signed up as a Hospice volunteer, providing respite care in patients' homes. Although I received no financial remuneration for my work, I found that the rewards of giving of myself to others more than made up for the lack of monetary compensation. Helping others to deal with illness, loss and grief helped me to face my own grief and to rebuild my shaky self-esteem. I was awed by the strength, the compassion, and the skill of the Hospice nurses, so much so that I soon felt a "calling" of my own to serve my fellow humans in a similar capacity. This "calling" gave me a purpose in my life, which would soon change my life forever.
As a struggling soon-to-be single mom, I did not have the funds for a nursing education. So I re-entered the helping profession as an aide in the physical therapy department in a local extended care and convalescent center. I was able to make a favorable enough impression on the Facility administration during this time that the Administrator offered to have the Facility pay for my nursing education, provided I sign an agreement to work for them for two years as an RN after my graduation. It was through this means that I was able to afford my nursing education, and for that reason I will always be forever grateful to the now-defunct Lucas Corporation, which owned the facility I worked in at that time. For the next few years, I did without sleep as I struggled to work, raise my children and finish my education. In 1992, I received my degree and my RN license. You can imagine how happy and proud I was!
Instead of the two years I had originally agreed upon, I stayed for ten. I found that I loved long-term care. The rewards of providing not only nursing care, but also a home and a sense of family and community for my patients were fantastic! I often felt, as I left my family to go to my job, that I was not going to work, but rather to my "other family." I loved the close connections with my patients and their families, and the cameraderie of my co-workers. Leaving long-term care was a painfully difficult choice for me. For more about my decision to leave that field, see my About Geriatric Nursing page. Actually, I ended up not being able to leave long-term care entirely...I missed my former co-workers and patients so much that up until October of 2001, I did PRN (as needed) work at my former Facility, and actually worked two jobs, averaging between 60 and 70 hours a week....
On October 16, 2001, which was two days after my fortieth birthday, I suffered a severe brain injury, which took me out of the nursing profession for almost a year. After spending more than a month in the hospital, I ended up spending several months in outpatient therapy (physical, occupational, and speech therapies) at a local Brain Injury clinic. I finally received medical clearance to return to work, on a limited, part-time basis, in July of 2002. At that point, my position on the Oncology unit at the hospital where I worked had been filled. While the hospital was more than willing to give me a position on a different unit, I made the decision to return once again to the familiar environment of long-term care, because I was so intimidated at the idea of trying to learn a new specialty on top of learning how to be a nurse again! Happily, I have readjusted well to the working life, and am once again able to work full-time, although I am in no way strong enough to resume the brutally punishing amount of overtime that I was able to do prior to my brain injury. However, I HAVE, once again, left the long-term environment and am currently working in a local acute care hospital, this time as a nurse on the critical-care stepdown unit.
I remarried more than ten years ago. My husband, Yury, is a native of Russia and has Canadian citizenship. He received his US Permanent Resident status in June of 2001. I have two daughters from my previous marriage, Megan, age 23, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who lives in St. Joseph, Michigan, and Melanie, age 20, who is a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. I also have a loving doggy, Maia age 9.
Hobbies and interests which I enjoy are travel, the Internet, working on my websites, shopping, gardening, reading, music (classical, opera, blues, and oldies are my favorites), classic movies ("Ben-Hur" is my all-time favorite), gourmet cooking, museums, cultural events, and most outdoor sports. I'm also an avid fan of "Star Trek" (the original series). I've been working on my nursing website off and on for the past six years, and am very proud and excited that "The Nurse's Station" now has its own domain! I would welcome any comments or suggestions which you might have to make my site more interesting and "user-friendly." Thanks so much for dropping by! I hope you will enjoy your visit here.....
