New Moon, New Blog

The new moon seems like a good time to start this blog that has been simmering in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks. Welcome to Making Time and Space.

As you can tell from the title, and if you didn't already know me, I'm a nurse. The nurse who does Busy Nurse Bento, actually, which is the reason for the URL. (That and every holistic/wellness URL I thought up was taken.) I'm also a Reiki Master-Teacher and a yoga practitioner, though I've discovered during my first two years as a nurse it is sadly easy to let these key self-care practices slide. My body recently decided to let me know what it thought about that (it was not a favorable opinion), and so I'm working to get back to a more balanced place wherein I take care of myself.

It's worth noting that doing so is part of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics. Provision Five states, "The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to preserve integrity and safety, to maintain competence, and to continue personal and professional growth (ANA, 2008, p. 55)." If I wouldn't stand by silently and let a client drop practices that had been helping them (my patients tend to agree that my job title could easily be "professional nag") then I owe it to myself to do the same. One of the blog posts that's been simmering is an expansion on that theme, in fact.

One other thing I should probably include in this introductory post is that I'm currently in graduate school working on a Masters in Nursing degree. While the tone of this blog will (I hope!) be more conversational than academic, I will do my best to both link and formally cite anything that I reference in order to make it easier for the reader to explore it on their own. I've always been big on pointing people to things I think they may find interesting anyway, and there's nothing like grad school to make a person completely cite-happy. In that vein, let me also link to one of the best tools a fellow student shared during my first semester: the BibMe bibiography maker. It's a great time-saver, though it does leave you on your own to work out the hanging indents required by APA format, something I've not accomplished yet in html.

Whether you're a fellow nurse, a student nurse or thinking about becoming one, or just think this sounds interesting, I thank you for stopping by and invite you to leave any thoughts you wish to share in the comments area.

Reference

Fowler, M. D. (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses: interpretation and application. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association.