I Am a Nurse

in this photo, i am in the bottom row third from left. the nurse 5th from left in the second row up, is the reason i am a good nurse. patty rowley, myra collins and me, rode to school together every day. taking turns driving, we studied our butts off in those cars.

just the flick of the wrong key, and a whole story is gone. good thing i didn't have a whole story.

actually, the story still may be gone, because i forgot what it was going to lead into after the line, "i am a nurse". i know i was thinking about my patient and today, but i am not quite sure what it was about. let me start again.

this is me in full white uniform. look at that huge hat

i am a nurse. yes, i know i have already mentioned that somewhere in the beginning. wait, this is still pretty much the beginning. well, no matter i am going to tell you again. i am a nurse.

this is me and my sister daryl on the night of my graduation. we were always having fallings out, but she came to my graduation regardless of any problems we might have been having. and for her to drive that far, in the dark , was because she loved me.

now, i am sure that what has come to your mind are the letters "RN". that would be nice, because there is a much better paycheck that goes with those letters, but my letters are "LPN". i am a much better nurse. when i first became a nurse, people would say that LPN stood for "Low Paid Nurse" and that RN was "Real Nurse." as the years moved on, LPN became "Little Peeon Nurse" and "Let's Play Nurse". finally, i have decided that LPN stands for "Life's Perfect Nurse", because that is what i am. well, maybe not so perfect, but i am a dam good nurse, and i know it. i work hard at being good at what i do.

this is elizabeth and me

go to look for a picture, and lose the train of thought you were following for the story. yes, i am old. what can i say. i left my story to find pictures of me as a nurse. i was able to find my nursing class photo, and some very grainy ones of the graduation. i know that there is one of me at my very first nursing position, but i have moved things about in the house because i was redoing some of the rooms. that photo is most likely in the bottom of that rubbermaid bucket with the miscellaneous photos. though i am not going to dig that photo out, i do have some more recent shots of me, being a nurse.

getting my nursing hat. until graduation, it had a red ribbon on top of a gray ribbon, signifying student nurse. this day, the red ribbon was removed.

we have definitely come a long way. i graduated nursing class in august of 1984. we were the largest lpn class that they had held in that school. the largest graduating lpn class from that school. the class was made up almost entirely of women. we had one man. he did not feel uncomfortable being the only male in such a large room of women. nursing is what he wanted to do, and he did what he had to to get his degree.

from the left, myra collins, me , i don't remember and patty rowley.

as you can tell, it was not all hard work. these two photos were of the students simulating a severe accident. it was probably a plane crash. it was so unorganized, i laid on a gurney for over an hour before i figured out that i had already "had my surgery". no one knew where i was. i was in the surgical hold. i stayed put because that is what i was told to do. such a good student i was. lol.

when i was in the clinicals, the RN's gave the students a hard time. there was not a day that didn't go by without one of them telling me they did not know why i was taking this class, as they were not going to be using LPN's anymore. they were phasing them out. as you can tell, i was not phased out. the RN's on the floor were supposed to supervise the students, and assist as needed, but they sat at the desk while we tried to give proper bed baths or do little tasks. but i will never forget when a RN was told to put a patient on a bed pan, and she didn't even know how!

well, i took too long looking for the photos, so i must go to bed now. i will complete my story another time. the brain will be more awake and functional then maybe?

hugggggggssssssss