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“Hospitals are becoming intensive care units. Nursing homes are becoming hospitals and homes are becoming nursing homes,” LeAnn Thieman told an audience of more than 200 nurses and nursing students.
Thieman, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul, visited Ohio University-Zanesville this week as a kick-off to National Nurses Week, which is celebrated May 6-10. The program was provided free to all nursing professionals by the Alice C. Tom Endowment Fund.
The endowment fund was established in 1983 in honor of Tom, who served as director of the Associate Degree Nursing Program at Ohio University from 1970 to 1983. The fund was developed to provide professional development opportunities for those who dedicate their lives to nursing.
Whether the audience participant was a seasoned veteran in the field or a brand new nursing student, the message from Thieman was well received. “LeAnn was very encouraging,” said Donavan Small, a nursing student. “We need this type of inspiration every quarter.”
Becky Joseph, of Genesis Cancer Services agrees. “It makes you reconsider the little things we do each day and how much difference it really makes,” said Joseph.
Thieman presented four mental tools to help keep nurses balanced as they deal with the daily challenges of their profession. They are slow breathing, positive thinking, laughter and forgiveness.
“We waste too much of our lives failing to forgive ourselves,” said Thieman. “When we don’t forgive, it doesn’t hurt the other person, it only hurts us.” Through a series of stories she reminded new and seasoned nurses to share the glory, honor and passion for what they do with one another.
“From chills for the miracles she shared to being about to cry through the sorrow she faced, LeAnn’s presentation was full of emotional ups and downs,” said Susan Dowell.
“I liked the story of her experience in Vietnam,” said Aaron McFarland, a final quarter nursing student. “It is wonderful to hear a nurse care so much for the children.” He went on to say that he hopes to be a pediatric nurse someday so he really appreciated her encouraging words and her passion.
Thieman stressed her message by relating to stories she experienced being caught up in the Vietnam Orphan Airlift and her 35 years of nursing experience along with reading thousands of stories as she co-authored Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul. The author of This Must Be My Brother, she detailed daring adventures of helping to rescue 300 babies that were abandoned as Saigon was falling to the Communists.
“I brushed the dust off one of the boxes as we went to pack for those 300 babies,” said Thieman. “I found my own handwriting with a box of supplies I had packed in my basement the month before (to send to the babies).”
As she recounted the highs and lows of her experience in Vietnam and meeting her future son, she reminded those in attendance that everything you do matters more than you know.
“I wasn’t brave,” she said. “I was no hero; I was just an ordinary nurse.” She went on to stress the importance of finding balance to continue to serve in those emotional times.
“Know which balls are rubber and which are made of glass,” she said. “Remember your health and those you love because if they’re broken their irretrievably broken.”
Like many service professions, nursing can be a thankless job. As National Nurses Week is celebrated remember to thank your caregivers – for every hand they hold, every life they touch, they light a candle of hope and healing.