Wow! Today has been a day filled with tears, hope, courage and inspiration. Well and I guess I can say some pain from about 50-100 conference attendees at least. Yes somehow it seems like some bug swarmed through knocking all the healthcare employees to their bed. I had of course thought I was so fortunate to have not gotten it but spoke too soon because it just decided to wait until it was time to go to the airport. I guess part of that can be considered good because I got to see all the speakers but yet the plane is not a fun place to not feel well either. Really just miserable.
But I can say the rest of the conference was incredible and definitely inspiring.
First speaker was Kelley Poppaw who talked about A Moment of Clarity: A New Clinicians Perspective. Her story discussed her personal heartbreak and tradgey and how she found her inspiration from readings a book in graduate school called The Diving Bell and the butterfly by Jean Dominque Bauby.
"Our circle of influence grows when we become a positively charged magnetic force within it."
- Jayne Felgen
Key Points:
- Reflective Writing can be a very helpful tool.
- If we stop sharing our stories we stop growing.
- Allow yourself to influence your own life.
- Speak from your heart.
- Create your voice.
- Inspiring people create energy.
- We are leaders for ourself as we manage our own life.
- Become articulate.
- The greater we lead our own life the greater leader we will be.
- Huge change happens in simple ways.
"When your back is up against the wall the only choice you have is to take the next step in front of you."
They asked the question:
"What keeps it alive?"
In this moment I felt like I had something to say, a story to tell. I made myself stand up and speak to the crowd with my hands shaking and heart pounding I stated:
What keeps it alive for me is the journey. It's getting back up when you feel like you can't. It's about finding hope and courage. I preceded to say about 4 years ago I had a breakdown. I was ready to give up on my nursing career. But somehow found the courage inside of me to continue moving forward and am now able to take care of patients the way I never was before.
This definitely took a lot for me to stand up and speak but I remind myself the more I step out of the box, the bigger my box will be. I have a desire to speak, to inspire and tell the story. I think it's the stories that keep us going and helps us to not feel alone.
"Let me be the carrier of hope for those who have none of their own."
Another speaker was Lee Woodruff who spoke about Courage in the face of adversity: A family's journey of healing. She is the author of a book written about their family's journey after her husband got hit by a bomb in the war as a reporter.
Key Points:
- It's much easier to be the person on the operating table then the one in the waiting room.
- You can't lose hope.
- The more you laugh the more you heal.
- What you see is not necessarily what the outcome will become.
So I really wanted to finish this and sum things up but it is time to go back to my bed. This is a terrible bug in which I hope goes away very soon. Not feeling well at all. It was a long day traveling sick yesterday and time to rest.
At the end of the day we become vulnerable.
Keep your hearts open and the light shining!
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