NURSES CALL THE SHOTS!!!!

I am loving it!! As a nurse, we use to just have nurses day in our honor. Now we get a whole week!! That's because we are such a integral part of life. What would we do without nurses!! We have come a long way since the days of Flo!! There were the days of flight nurses!! Can you just imagine that you could take a flight and and get your insulin monitored or make sure you took your lipitor or VIAGRA!!??


I was so thrilled when I graduated from nursing and got $5 per hour(no benefits). Even though I was basically a hand maid to the MD. Carried HIS (male dominated society) charts on rounds, held the suture string, brought coffee, always cleaned up the mess, etc. Don't miss those days. Now I work at all woman clinic and only make coffee for myself. And I did get a raise and have benefits!

But it has been a long and windy road!! It never seemed fair to me that the male dominated trades made way more money and had wonderful retirement. They would have never put up with all the crap (literally) that nurses took. Over the years, nurses finally have a voice. Fortunately, for the nurses that are turning out now, they will have better benefits, retirement, job satisfaction, improved safety and quality of patient care. Whoops, I am up on my soap box.

I was thrilled to hear this "thrive" ad on the radio for Kaiser celebrating nurses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg8mH9D-PVQ
"Nurses are nurses because their capacity to care is colossal.
May our 45,000 nurses all live long and thrive."

So on your birthday today, Florence, I want to celebrate the legacy you left and the vision you had for modern nursing over 166+ years ago.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift.
There is nothing small about it.

As a Kaiser RN it is only fitting that I will part with:
"MAY YOU LIVE LONG AND THRIVE!"