Thanks to our winners for serving to to maintain our households and communities secure and wholesome! We talked with them to study extra about their nursing experiences and get their viewpoint on what they wish to see sooner or later for nursing.

IBX: What impressed you to turn out to be a nurse?

Milligan: I’ve all the time been a nurturer from so long as I can bear in mind. I cherished taking good care of my youthful siblings, was all the time the good friend checking in, and have become an immediate mother at a really younger age to my older three youngsters. I then proceeded to have one other three for a complete of six lovely youngsters, and I actually was by no means drawn to every other career. Nothing else ever crossed my thoughts. I knew this was my ardour.

Riggins: It’s a type of issues the place they are saying if you happen to’d do one thing without spending a dime that’s how you recognize you’ve gotten the job that’s for you. I do it outdoors of labor as properly. And I all the time take telephone calls, like I’m by no means off work. I’ll reply the telephone at 1 a.m. if my affected person is within the hospital…I simply take pleasure in what I do.

Santos: I didn’t actually have an “Aha” second that I can recall. However, I’ve all the time felt that I’ve a therapeutic spirit, and I needed to channel it in a method that would profit individuals. Nurses are healers — bodily, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

IBX: What’s the most gratifying side of nursing and why?

Milligan: Probably the most gratifying side of nursing to me is the bond I get to make with my sufferers and their households. I really like the schooling and anticipatory steerage I can present, however I additionally need my sufferers and their mother and father/guardians to know I deeply care about them and deal with them as in the event that they had been my circle of relatives.

Riggins: I simply really feel like I adore it right here at Pathways. I really like my job. I really like what I do. I really like all of the employees. I really like my sufferers. I wouldn’t commerce it for something.

Santos: Probably the most gratifying side of nursing is that it’s a journey of lifelong studying. What I do know at present is actually a drop within the ocean. Sufferers are the best academics.

IBX: How do you apply self-care and handle the stress that comes with the job?

Milligan: My youngsters are my type of self-care. They’re my world, and once I might be targeted on them and be current, the stress disappears. I additionally prefer to train and am a member of Barre^®, which is a type of train that additionally focuses on being aware and that has helped me tremendously.

Riggins: Two issues stand out for me. Initially, I pray on a regular basis, daily. Prayer retains me sane and balanced. And I’m an expert physique builder. So, I prefer to work out, run, and carry — that’s like my different life.

Santos: Tending to my crops helps me handle stress. I additionally love getting misplaced in a superb ebook!

IBX: What’s your greatest hope for the way forward for nursing and why?

Milligan: So as [for nurse practitioners and advanced practice providers to work at the highest level], I imagine the group must be educated on our function and the way necessary our sufferers are to us. Nurse practitioners had been nurses first, and the care we offer simply continues to develop.

Riggins: Proper now, we’re overwhelmed due to the nurse-to-patient ratio. So, I’m hoping that sooner or later, they discover a method to steadiness it. You’re employed 12 hour shifts then go dwelling and sleep your complete time off since you’re so drained, and then you definately flip round and do it another time. I believe there’s no steadiness proper now within the nurse-to-patient ratio, and I hope they will mediate someplace to do higher with that as a result of individuals don’t pursue nursing as a result of they assume it’s too arduous. And it’s however, you recognize, we nonetheless want nurses.

Santos: My greatest hope for the way forward for nursing is to see extra nurses on the tables the place choices are being made. What higher method to drive outcomes than to hunt enter and steerage from those who’re within the driver’s seat?

IBX: What causes are you enthusiastic about outdoors of nursing?

Milligan: Two issues come to thoughts when I’m requested this query. First, I’m a mother or father with a baby who has a uncommon metabolic dysfunction. Offering schooling to different medical professionals and my group about these uncommon issues is necessary to me.

Second, psychological well being. I imagine there may be not sufficient help for this inhabitants. So many younger youngsters, teenagers, and adults endure from a psychological well being dysfunction, and there usually are not sufficient psychological well being suppliers on the market to help them. I’ve taken on a task in my career to strive achieve this and preserve an in depth eye on my psychological well being sufferers as a result of they need to really feel they matter.

Riggins: What’s humorous is I work this job, and I even have a job at a psychological well being facility on the weekends, and I’m additionally at school, in order that takes up all of my time. I’m at school to be a nurse practitioner, and I solely have two extra months left.

However, I’m actually large on bringing individuals to God as a result of I really feel just like the world is misplaced proper now. They usually want some hope, so there may be all the time hope in Jesus.

Santos: I’m most enthusiastic about bridging the hole between people and the assets they should assist them go from surviving to thriving. A few of our greatest societal challenges — meals insecurity, homelessness, and substance use — usually are not wholly about lack of assets, however lack of entry. My aim is to be a human compass for different people, to allow them to entry the assets they want.