Join the Nurseketeers in the effort to be “one for all and all for one.” The Nurseketeers is about paying forward to the profession and each other related to nurses’ power and what nursing represents. Our mission is to share the enjoyment of writing and learning through meaningful stories about diverse nursing characters.
When was the last time you encountered a nurse doing the right thing for the right reasons in a difficult situation? How did you shore up that nurse? How has another nurse shored you up in a difficult time? How did your influence change for the better? Have you stood on the shoulders of nurses who have modeled best practice actions you most admire? Who are your nurse heroes? Did those heroes set the stage for you to be a better nurse or change something that made it easier for you to care for your patients?
Kudos to an organization, Course Hero, whose staff recently invited nine nursing educators including me to an event they hosted. They allowed us to share diverse ideas with each other about ways to improve our teaching of nursing students. The engaging and synergistic environment Course Hero staff created allowed the nursing faculty to embrace divergent ideas and collaborate to explore the best practice they could offer collectively.
Course Hero is located in the Google buildings’ complex, and participants were intrigued by the huge wood Google sign out front. We were in Silicon Valley, experiencing a technologically innovative environment, showcased by the open hyper-infectious activity within the Course Hero work setting. These mostly-millennials brought in a mostly-boomers group of nurses and the combination of cultures, ideas, and brain trust created an exciting event in which to take part. That activity allowed us to reflect on who we are, who we can become, and how we can achieve a synergistic outcome of great things when we work together.
This opportunity for a candid critique and open support for professional improvement is something that Terri and I foster within our author partnership and in our Nurseketeers series within the nursing situations the characters encountered. The Nurseketeers series begins with four nursing students in the initial stage of pursuing the profession of nursing. We want readers to experience nursing from the earliest investment in becoming a nurse and the effect that nursing has on the characters and the people they will encounter as nurses.
The series explores life-altering issues such as bullying and abusive behavior. We want to show how nurses standing together can help eliminate that type of behavior in our professional lives and create a “just culture” that supports all nurses and their patients encountered. We believe that nurses reflect the underlying passion they have for nursing and their patients in their daily activities. Each nurse has a personal life and we demonstrate that through our character’s lives in the Nurseketeers series, how their individual passion for nursing interweaves with other aspects of their lives, particularly in the early years of their academic preparation for nursing.
Nurses are people just like everyone else, with loved ones, fighting illness, disease and doing the best they can for others. When my Mom was dying, a hospice nurse reinforced for me the value of what nurses contribute every day. That RN respected me as a nurse and caregiver for Mom, but there was a moment during that care process that I was no longer the nurse; I was the daughter. That nurse understood the transition, stepped in when I could no longer shoulder the responsibility of nursing, and needed to be the daughter suffering a pending personal loss.
In our books, we weave the backdrop of nursing and the fullness of the individual lives of our characters into stories that present the opportunities and challenges that comprise the reality of nursing.
Join forces with our Nurseketeers heroes, let others know you have been touched by a nurse who helped you become a better person because you have known them, mentored you, touched your heart or your family, or served as a role model for you.