My early morning walk was different as my steps pounded with reflections on the nursing students of Kramer School of Nursing at OCU this week.
More than ninety incoming freshmen, laptops open, steaming cups of coffee, all pursuing their calling of becoming registered nurses for the future of our healthcare.
Speechless and overcome with emotion, I witnessed young dedicated people with hearts readied for the challenges ahead.
Being invited into this sacred space of learning to offer my presentation, “Alchemy of Care at the Bedside,” gave me the opportunity to share a toolbox of stories from my own experiences as a seasoned nurse and devastated mom who spent years with Jessie on the other side of the bed. Powerful glimpses were shared, showing how we as nurses utilize these powerful ingredients within us to open a door of hope or a door of doom for the people entrusted to our care. It is through human connection that Hope can be transfused.
My very favorite part of the day was talking with the students afterwards and hearing them share their hearts about how they will never forget Jessie’s story. Many speaking about how much it meant to them to hear personal stories of how bedside care can impact one so profoundly and how it will change their practice.
One student was wearing a t-shirt with the words “Faith over Fear.” She didn’t know that was the name of one of the stories in my book. She didn’t know those very words had been given to me by God, using a farmer on a dirt road and a sign to give me the strength to make it through each day during a very difficult time with Jessie.
When she raised her hand, she offered a story about herself. She voiced she had been praying and fasting about going into nursing school and was given her answer through a scripture out of Esther, “You have been chosen for such a time as this.” She finished with, “When you said that very scripture in your presentation to us, I knew God was confirming my answer again.”
Eighty books of Severed Sacredness: The Miraculous Journey of Jessie Boone were given to these students with the hope that by reading our experiences within complex healthcare systems, they can witness how to be better navigators of the human heart in the midst of the challenges and dynamics of patients and their families.
My biggest gift of the morning was the privilege of being face to face with this visual hope for our future healthcare with these courageous students stepping forward to accept the call, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”