Dear Healthcare

hi, healthcare, it's me.

I am one of the many of thousands upon thousands of nurses in the country, so I don't expect you to know who I am.

Honestly, I don't even expect you to be aware of my worth ethic and my passion for patient advocacy, among other things.

I mean, I am right though. You send me emails and claim my "bad attitude" is putting "patient safety" at risk.

You send me emails in reference to things that happened over a month ago, and ask me to "explain" myself.

Does no one see the problem here? Does no one see the toxicity of the environment which drives your good nurses away?

They have "black lists" for nurses who terminate contracts early; although I am sure there are many who deserve to be on this black list, there are also many hospitals who deserve to be on this black list.

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In undergrad, I had a series of unfortunate events happen which set me on a path which I am thankful for. This "series of unfortunate events" was a car accident in which I broke my ankle . . . in the middle of nursing school.

If you don't think that is a big deal, then you have never been through nursing school.

Because of this series of events, I took on a research project for the Honors College I was apart of; this research project was entitled Examining the Consumer's Perspective of Patient Advocacy in which I interviewed non-healthcare related college students for their perceptions and understanding of what "Patient Advocacy" means to them.

This research study was submitted to The Alpha Chi Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship and was published in Volume 2, Issue 1 of their journal.

This publication of my words and hard work was very much an accomplishment for me; it has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to be a published author. Now did I ever imagine my first publication to be a research thesis? No, but I think that makes it even more special.

In addition to this being a personal accomplishment for me, I think this research of mine was a beautiful beginning to a lifelong journey of defining patient advocacy in all areas of healthcare.

Through numerous struggles with toxic work environments, advocating for the nursing workforce has started to become a passion of mine, something that can strongly affect that of patient advocacy.

For example: Insert yourself in as and ICU nurse. ICU nurses are normally a one nurse to two patient ratio (however, pandemic times and staff shortages beg to differ). Whenever ICU staff gets tripled (three ICU patients to one nurse), it seems that the same patients regularly stay within a staffed triple. With this triple, the nurse is not able to adequately care for each patient; the nurse is not able to dedicate the necessary time to attend to each patient.

When a nurse exerts advocacy on this situation, she will refuse a triple for the second day in a row with the same three patients in order to advocate for herself as well as for her patients.

As I continue to gain experience and perspective, I am learning more and more what patient advocacy is.

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I believe advocating for your patient involves advocating for yourself.

You cannot serve from an empty vessel.

You cannot pour from an empty cup.

Taking care of yourself is as important, if not more important, than taking care of those around you. You cannot care for others when the insides of you are rotting.

I wish healthcare would invest more into advocating for the mental health of their employees; of their nurses. I wish healthcare would choose to increase advocacy for patients.

I just have a bad feeling things will continue to get worse before they get better.

So this is my reminder to do your part and do what is best for you, because no one will take care of you like you take care of you.

And healthcare, I would love it if you would stop accusing me of not being a patient advocate (if you are questioning if I am an advocate, please click the link below).

Also, if you would like to read my undergrad research study on patient advocacy, click here.