National Nurses Week...May 6th - 12th. To some it might not mean a lot, but to me it does. It means a lot to me because there is a nurse that is very close to me....my mom. As mentioned in a previous article I wrote, my mom is a single parent and has been my whole life - I'll be 21 in June. She put herself through nursing school and passed her NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses [looked up full name via Google.com]) on the first try. Seeing first hand what all went into being able to take the exam, I couldn't even imagine doing it myself.

I remember helping my mom study for her anatomy and physiology (A&P), among other classes, exams and there would be so many times where she would get frustrated and would feel like giving up, but she didn't. She graduated nursing school and made it through her one year at the hospital so she could get experience. Once she had her year experience, she went back to what she loved...home health, where you are actually in someone's home. She started with one or two pediatric cases and some adult cases too, but soon realized that her true passion was the pediatric cases, so she started looking for different agencies.

After years of working, months of recovering from different injuries, she has finally found a new home (still within the pediatric family though). She started as a nurse that was doing shift work- going to someone's home- to getting moved up quickly and becoming a part-time nursing supervisor, to now being a full-time nursing supervisor. This means she has other RNs (Registered Nurses), home health aids/CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants), and LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurse) under her at the different cases she is in charge of.

She has done such a wonderful job with tackling the tasks that this new position has brought on and I wish that she could see how well she is doing. I wish she could see how much I look up to her for everything she has accomplished. I'm so thankful that I have a nurse as a mom....even though sometimes that means long hours and weird sleep schedules and not really getting to see each other much (which that has changed a little bit thanks to her new position).

I could go on and on, but I wont... So, to all the nurses out there- past, present, and future- thank you for everything that you do and for all the people that you selflessly help, for you are there with your patients and their families 100% of the time (even after the doctors have gone home) and help see them through to wherever they may go and it means more than you know. It takes a special type of person to be a nurse, it's truly a superpower. I love you Mama as well as the rest of the nurses in the world!

"No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - devoted and obedient" - Florence Nightingale (foundational philosopher of modern nursing [via britannica.com/biography/Florence-Nightingale])