Homeless to PhD...faith

I mentioned in another post that I was writing a book about my life titled, Homeless to Phd: a story about Faith, Relationships, and Perseverance. I am finishing up the Faith section of the book and I am reminded of how awesome and powerful my God is and how much He loves me.

I have a section that talks about the scripture Zephaniah 3:17 out of the Holy Bible. Here is a snippet  from the book:

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

This is my hallelujah scripture-He loves me and will not rebuke me but He will rejoice over me with singing. This means so much to me. I love to sing praise and worship songs, by the way, praise and worship is one of my favorite things to do for the Lord. I listen in the car, when I’m feeling down and just whenever—I sing too but I am not very good and probably will never sing a solo of anything. I recently joined my church choir and enjoy the opportunity to praise Him every Sunday. This scripture says He will rejoice over me with singing…He will rejoice over me with singing…as a girl who had doubts that anyone ever loved me and struggled with searching for love my entire life…being told I have no earthly father and then being abandoned by my mother—a girl who wanted to commit suicide rather than face another day because I thought no one cared and no one loved me and this life was just too much and too hard and not worth living. A girl who committed horrible sins and crimes and to read this scripture-I am in awe of my savior and my love. He rejoices over me with singing. I am not worthy of this life I live and I am surely not worthy of Him or His love for me BUT HE LOVES ME STILL AND HE REJOICES OVER ME WITH SINGING. As much as I love praise and worship and as much as I love to sing how great He is-this promise to me from Him is more than I could ever repay Him for and I hope that you too can know how much He loves you.                               I have so much to be grateful for and when I am reminded of how great He is I just become overwhelmed. I hope you know that there is a savior who loves you and He is as close as the mention of His name. I learned the hard way of finding out about this love-I write so you don't have to make the same mistakes as I did. Faith is the foundation of my story--I did not get to where I am without Faith first. Remember, you are loved. Peace. Love.

Sincerely Yours,

NurseNicelyRN

Pick your rocks everyday...

Wow! I have not posted on this blog since August of 2015...Crazy, huh? Well a lot has happened since then. I have completed a PhD!!!!! Yes, now people call me Dr.....wow! I am still getting used to this new label.

My husband and I started raising my 5 year old great nephew in 2017 and  also started a new job as an assistant professor of nursing at my alma mater. I love teaching nursing students.

Yesterday, I held a "strategies for success" session for my students and I showed a video about putting important things first https://youtu.be/6_N_uvq41Pg and then I had a short discussion afterward. I asked the students what they got out of the video and some said to put the important things higher on the priority list and others said to prioritize. This is about what I expected from everyone. What I really wish is that everyone, including myself, really really established a priority list EVERY DAY!!

If you watched the video you saw that if you put the the big rocks in the jar first then the smaller pebbles and then the sand it will all fit into your day. Today, I am looking at my list of priorities and the things that I know I MUST get done are at the top of the list.
1. finish writing an exam
2. finish chapter reviews for a book
3. write my word count expectation in my own book that I am writing
4. prepare to teach a Sunday School lesson
5. take the little to the library as promised

Regardless of what your priorties are-put them first...determine these priorities by your goals. For example, if you have a goal of becoming a nurse and you are in nursing school, studying would be a priority, right? It was for me when I was in school. The good thing about nursing school is that it is only for a short time and then you have a lifetime to do all the amazing things you want to do in life.

Happy Prioritizing!!

I am here writing this blog post and this is not even on my list--I am already off track! Ugh! Has this happened to any of you? Probably. So how do we get better? Practice?

As with anything else that we want to get better at, yes, we practice...practice...practice. Practice prioritizing the rocks in your life this week and I will too. So, I better get back to those rocks, right now.

Before I go, I want to say, Thanks to all who read this blog and I will be making more posts now that I am finished with school and currently writing a book #homelesstoPhD. I want to share snippets of the book on here so be watching for new posts. Thanks a bunch...and remember--YOU ARE AWESOME!!

Best,
Nurse NicelyRN
#homelesstoPhD

Back to studying, back to no-life, back to reality...welcome to nursing school!

Well, as the summer sets like the sun in the western sky so begins or restarts your journey to becoming a nurse.

I hope your summer was restful and enjoyable! Mine was...I traveled through 13 western states with my two foreign exchange students in 13 days, and over 5500 miles. What an amazing adventure.

As you are getting settled into your classes and reviewing your syllabi, checking your clinical schedules, and thinking about reading those assignments know that you are not alone. Nursing students everywhere are experiencing the same joys of going back to school. Also know that every nurse has gone through this and you can make it!! We promise!

If you need help know you can seek out assistance from your faculty or you can email me for a custom tutoring session.

nursenicelyrn@gmail.com

Welcome back to school and you are awesome!!

Nurse NicelyRN: To digress in summer may not be the best idea...

Nurse NicelyRN: To digress in summer may not be the best idea...: Yay! School is out and the summer sun is peaking through the clouds. Many of you may have a summer trip planned or maybe you are just going ...

To digress in summer may not be the best idea...

Yay! School is out and the summer sun is peaking through the clouds. Many of you may have a summer trip planned or maybe you are just going to take a break and catch up on some of those favorite things you have been missing while in nursing school. Whatever you do enjoy your summer to the fullest!

Congratulations to all the recent nurse graduates. I wish you the best study times as you prepare to take the NCLEX. I hope you choose to take the test sooner rather than later.

For those of you who will return to nursing school in the fall, don't digress. I'm not advising that you spend the entire summer studying. Not at all...what I suggest is spending time reviewing what you already learned, get a better understanding of the subject area you were lacking in, and read some chapters that will be part of your upcoming semester.

Three things three things three things! Touch on something once a week over the summer so you can retain what you have learned. When you do this returning to the structure of nursing school will not be so daunting.

I hope you find these three things helpful as you go through nursing school! You can do it!

Enjoy your summer.

Yours Truly,

Nurse Nicely

#4weeksoflove Week 4 last one...

#4weeksoflove

Today is the final day in February 2015.

What an amazing journey of love this month.

I write this post from a hospital room. My precious father in law who is 95 years old is in the hospital with a diagnosis of malignancy that has metastasized throughout his body. His wife of 70 years passed away in October of 2013 and he has been lonely ever since.

The love they shared together was amazing and I often reflect over their relationship and how they were committed to each other no matter the situation. This practice is not so prevalent in times of today. More often we see multiple marriages and divorce.  Instead of fighting for a relationship we give up easily.

Love, what a concept. What does love mean to you?

Reflect over the #4weeksoflove posts and think about the meaning of love in your life.

One of my goals is to demonstrate love to others in every interaction.

I am convinced that love is the answer to our woes.

Love Always,
NurseNicelyRN

Adventures in Jordan #4weeksoflove

#4weeksoflove

Week 3

I arrived back into the United States of America yesterday morning (February 24, 2015) from my trip to Aqaba, Jordan. I was in Jordan to present alongside my research partners for the Middle Eastern Nurses & Partners Uniting in Human Caring Conference. The mission of the conference is to promote the practice and application of Caring Science/Caring Theory, translating theory into concrete ethical and evidence-informed approaches for self and others (http://watsoncaringscience.org/education-programs/intro-to-human-caring/middle-eastern-nurses-project/). My research team and I presented over our research study The Lived Experience of Incivility in Nursing Education. The picture below is Jean Watson opening the day and we were the first presenters on Saturday of the conference schedule (that is our presentation displayed on the screen behind Jean Watson).

The conference was an amazing awakening into the human caring experience for myself. I never imagined my life experiences would have evolved to a place and time as being in Jordan with one of the great nursing theorists. Let alone the great nursing theorist who is responsible for the theory of caring in nursing. Phenomenal! 

There are so many experiences that I could share on this blog about my experience, but I will focus on "love" since this is #4weeksoflove. So here are a few things I learned in Aqaba, Jordan about love...

1. Love is universal. Love is a language that transcends every border, boundary, being, language, culture, tribe, country, region, continent, and any other word you could find describing separations. What does this mean? Maybe you are thinking there are words for love in every language or culture, but that is not what I'm trying to describe. How do you demonstrate love to others who do not speak your language. I was thinking about how the people in Jordan and everyone at the conference could feel love from me, how could I show my love to them, how would they know? The one thing that came to mind was a smile. A smile can transcend every border and a smile can show love. I smiled a lot in Jordan.

2. Love as a caring nurse. There were many presentations from nurses all over the Middle Eastern regions and as I listened and learned, what came to mind was the foundation of caring in every nurse. It is one thing to go to work every day and care (action form) for those who are sick and help mend them back to health or to a better state of being, it is another thing to be in conscious awareness of caring as the fundamental essential for being a nurse. Caring for humanity, this is the type of caring which crosses every barrier and this caring begins with love. I had an epiphany while at the conference, that a caring nurse can love and care for anyone no matter the barrier, boundary, being, language, tribe, culture, country, or region because love and caring is universal. Humanity can receive love and caring. The epiphany was that I could love and care for any human because I have knowledge and training as a nurse and of the human system, but, more importantly, I have found the true source of love within my heart.

3. Love begins from within. There is a place within each of us where love lives and it is in the heart. Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted for saying "to handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." What I know is true is that one must first know what love is before they can demonstrate love to others. I had to find out what love was before I could demonstrate it to anyone else. This was not easy for me and it took many years of my life to be comfortable with love. I cannot be selective of who I love because then barriers are created-love has no barriers. A challenge for myself and others is to find and continue the source of love in your life and the rest will come naturally.

Love is so amazing. God is Love.

At the conference in Jordan, there was discussion about world peace and during this discussion one of the words that kept coming up was...guess...yep, LOVE!

How can you demonstrate love in your environment? 

Love always,

NurseNicelyRN 

This picture is of me and my research partners from Oklahoma City University (Carie Strauch, Staci Swim and Vanessa Wright) creating a caring circle in the Red Sea in Aqaba, Jordan. Love.