This week I wanted to highlight my best friend, Amanda. Amanda is a nurse on the cardiology floor at one of the best hospitals in Connecticut and dang, am I SO PROUD of this woman.
As we all know, the occupation of nurses and doctors was lit up more than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic. We as a society and world as a whole FINALLY recognized what these men and women do for us on a daily basis...and to be honest, it's pretty sad how long it took for this acknowledgement to happen.
Covid-19 took a massive hit on most people in the medical field, including my dear friend Amanda who had just become a registered nurse and was then thrown into the fire with this pandemic. I asked her if she would feel comfortable writing a featured post about her experience and what life has looked like for her since February 2020.
I hope you enjoy the below!
Xx,
Kimmy
For as long as I can remember becoming a nurse was all I ever wanted, ever since I was a 12 year-old little girl. I remember being in a hospital for my very first time and wanting to be one of those nurses helping to heal. I watched the nurses as they zoomed around that hospital caring for multiple people at once, feeling so inspired by how someone could do that with their career: take sick people and care for them. They looked so “chill”, walking so confidently like they knew every move they were going to make and knew it would help someone one day, even save a life or make a difference in ones life. I envied that sight, it was something I wanted to so desperately feel.
Skipping ahead a few years, I made the choice to go into nursing myself. Most know, this was not an easy path for me, I struggled at multiple colleges and was also told by quite a few professors that maybe this wouldn’t be the right career path for me. I always thought that was the most ridiculous accusation to make. They didn’t know me or who I was, so how could they possibly tell me what was right for me? I know myself best. When you’ve spent most of your life only wanting one thing, how could you ever consider anything else? How could I possibly live with myself if I didn’t do all I could to be what I wanted to be. I won’t go through the whole gruesome story but however hard and demeaning it was sometimes, I did finally walk that stage accepting my Bachelor in Science for Nursing. Soon after, passing my NCLEX, which damn-near broke me to prepare for and to take, was all within my reach.
Once I graduated, I was offered a job at my hometown hospital in Stamford, CT and it all seemed too good to be true. Just when I was two weeks off from orientation at the hospital and on my own on the floor, COVID-19 blew up and I went straight into the pandemic as a brand new nurse. To say this was the hardest moment of my life wouldn’t be fair, my whole road to becoming a nurse is pretty comparable…however, this was different. This was someone accomplishing a life long dream and coming into probably one of the worst times in history; a global pandemic. A sickness we knew nothing about it or whether or not we were being protected enough, it was terrifying to say the least. I remember reading so many posts on social media about nurses and how it’s “what we signed up for”, but is that really true? Because when I went through all of those seven years to be a nurse, never once was I taught how to survive a global pandemic. Never once do I recall ever talking about that mere chance of something like this occurring, let alone living through it for 4 months and possibly more. What nurses do sign up for id to promise to give all of our care to our patients: to listen and respect their every thought and choice, and to heal only with the hands we were given to the best of our ability.
Now looking back, do I regret this career path or regret this being my dream? No of course not, I love what I do! But I’d be lying if I said some days weren’t harder than others. Some days it’s almost normal to question yourself but that’s in anything we do in life. My advice is this: Just because something was a life long dream doesn’t mean it’ll make you feel whole, it doesn’t mean you’re done with the struggle life brings. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side and it’s important to remember that when you’re consumed with one thing only, it is okay to struggle. Don’t be so hard on yourself if it all doesn’t just click on the other side. The fight to survive everyday is still there and you can do it. If you have a dream, go out there and get it and never look back! We only have one life to live and we don’t have time to regret not trying something new, or doing something out of our comfort zone. Whatever life throws our way we are meant to survive it and we will.
With love & good health,
Amanda
Instagram: @nursingwoes
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