For more than 25 years, we have celebrated one of the largest segments of the U.S. workforce as a whole – NURSES. National Nurses Week is celebrated in honor of Florence Nightingale who is considered to be the founder of modern nursing.

Nightingale, also known as the “Lady with the Lamp,” organized the care of sick and wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. According to her biography, she campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, including hospital planning and organization, infection control measures and the key factor for recovery being a healthy diet. Her vision still continues today as nursing is often the first line of defense in the prevention of illness and injury and promoting health through clinical practice, education and research.

In celebration of the nursing profession, Duke University School of Nursing faculty, staff and students share with us whether they chose nursing or it chose them or their most monumental moments in the nursing profession in our first DUSON Nurse Hall of Fame.

Enjoy!

“I chose nursing. In 2005, my grandmother got severe pneumonia and was sent to the local hospital. Each time I went to see her, I saw two male nurses taking care of her. This left me with a great impression of their sufficient medical knowledge, meticulous nursing care, high spirit and sweet smiles.”

~ Zhao Ni, PhD Student

“One summer, a young Vietnamese man was in a motor vehicle accident that took the lives of the other three people in the car. He spent five months on my ward. The man spoke no English, having arrived only a few weeks earlier from rural Vietnam. He was the sickest and most challenging patient I, as a new nursing grad, ever met. When he finally could eat, he would throw the food across the room. As his primary nurse, I had to figure out how to feed him, so myself and three others learned how to make Vietnamese noodles. He didn’t throw them. Three years later, the man was admitted for another reason, and he hugged me, said my name and we sat and spoke most of the night – in English. It was the best night of my life.”

~ Sonya Glavin, Clinical Instructor

“After graduating high school at 16 years old, I was awarded a nursing scholarship. Nursing is an interesting career because there are so many avenues to travel, and it offers the opportunity to continually learn and expand personally. I can’t imagine having done anything else but nursing.”

~ Wanda Bradshaw, Assistant Professor

“Monumental moments of nursing are a daily attribute. We advocate for so many individuals outside of our career facility because many people look to us as a resource or foundation of knowledge to assist in making educated decisions about their health. Our experiences are some that will be treasured and reminisced for decades to come.”

~ Ivanna Plymouth, MSN Student

“As a teen I was fascinated by pathophysiology and psychology and learned that I had a skill for coaching people to higher levels. Growing up near Detroit during the period when auto companies were closing with massive layoffs, the job security of nursing appealed to me. Nursing provides flexibility and a broad scope of services I can learn and apply that truly keep me passionate about my profession. Now I have the best of all jobs as an administrator and teacher.”

~ John Hudson, Associate Chief Nursing Officer and Clinical Associate

“I am a refugee from the Soviet Union, and my family left my country after a radioactive explosion. Many children, men and women were plagued with cancer as a result of radiation exposure. I was so moved and touched by the disaster that I have dedicated my life to improving oncologic care.”

~ Anna Lucas, DNP Student

“I chose nursing. I needed a health care background to apply for a program to do auditing and wanted to be in Medicare fraud. During my last rotation, I was placed at a high acuity unit and loved it. I’ve never looked back.”

~ Blanca Iris Padilla, Assistant Clinical Professor

“I don’t have one monumental nursing moment. Each life always touches you in some way, and knowing that when you leave their side you have given them the very best care that you could is one of the most wonderful and best feelings in the world.”

~ Angel Barnes, Clinical Research Coordinator II

“My most monumental nursing moment is and will always be actually saving a life. Having someone code and then to literally bring life back to them and their family is just priceless. There are no words to describe the feeling.”

~ Lisa McDowell, MSN Student

“Prior to nursing choosing me, I had an amazing career variety – a residential volunteer in a sustainable community in New Zealand rainforest, a biological sciences technician for the U.S. Forest Services and a ski instructor. Each opportunity gave me a unique set of skills and allowed me to strengthen my understanding of how I learn, communicate and lead. Most importantly, all of my previous experiences taught me that my true passion is to take care of people holistically. All roads pointed to my next journey of nursing, a road I’m so happy to venture down.”

~ Katherine Geyer, ABSN Alum, MSN Student and Clinical Instructor

“Nursing chose me. I wrote my fifth grade career day paper about wanting to be an EMT – I couldn’t spell ‘paramedic’ – because I wanted to fly on LifeFlight. However, I found out that I needed to be a nurse to do that. So…”

~ Rémi Hueckel, Assistant Professor

“My most monumental moment is when I realized that nursing is a service to others and that I could positively impact the communities I serve through the high-quality, culturally sensitive care I provide.”

~ La Monica Hunter, MSN Student

“I was prepared to go to veterinary school a long way from home. However, I’d gotten sick the summer and fall prior to leaving and thus had to attend a university closer to home. Nursing was the closest program to veterinary medicine offered at this university. So I settled for nursing. Within the first week of classes, I realized that while nursing chose me, I was in the right place. I’ve never looked back nor regretted any of my decisions since that first week.”

~ Sharron Docherty, Associate Professor and ADAPT Center Director

“Nursing chose me. When I was nine years old, my mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. I was the oldest girl and had to do much of the caregiving. When I was 15, hospice came into my home to help care for my mother. The hospice nurse was amazing, which prompted me to look at a career in nursing. I wanted to provide patients with the care and empathy my mom and our family had received.”

~ Maria Colandrea, Clinical Contracting Consultant

“My monumental moments are any time I receive a note from a student or patient with an expression of how I have made a difference. This reminds me that even when I think I am just doing my job, others are watching my actions and listening to my words and demeanor. It helps me remember to do my best all of the time.”

~ Katherine Pereira, Associate Professor

“Nursing chose me. It was during my clinical experience working with a Boston shelter for the homeless that I truly recognized the gap in care for the homeless population with HIV/AIDS. After writing countless research papers, working with the shelter and speaking with homeless persons living with HIV/AIDS, I decided that I would like to do nursing research and be directly involved in bridging the gap that exists between homeless persons living with HIV/AIDS and their care.”

~ Ashakie Phillips, MSN Student

“My most monumental moment in nursing relates to my work in Southern Africa. In collaboration with colleagues from six southern African nations, we developed the core competencies related to HIV/AIDS for nurses.”

~ Michael Relf, Associate Dean for Global and Community Affairs

“I think nursing chose me because I was at a point in my military career where I was uncertain of which pathway to follow. I ended up working with Navy nurses, and their enthusiasm for the field of nursing drew me in immediately. I never looked back after that.”

~ Brigit Carter, ABSN Program Director

 “There are so many monumental nursing moments for me, but the one I remember the most is being a new neonatal nurse practitioner out in the field at a small community hospital and getting a chest tube placed correctly on a very tiny infant – alone and without help.”

~ Robin Dail, Associate Professor

“When I was in the second grade, I drew a picture of a nurse on a Navy ship. I wrote under the picture, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a Navy nurse.’ I may blame it on my mother who gave me a Nancy Nurse doll when I was two years old. On the other hand, I guess it was my destiny!”

~ Alison Edie, Assistant Professor

“My monumental moment wasn’t an award or a raise or a promotion, but rather when a former Guillain-Barre patient, ‘Ms. B,’ and her husband adopted me following her recovery. The patient shared with me that she remembered me talking to her, telling her about the news and current events when she could not speak, washing and brushing her hair and repositioning her for hours. She told me how much it meant that I provided basic needs when she was unable to do so. That made all of the time I spent in her room more meaningful. She thanked me for helping her, and I thanked her for teaching me so many valuable lessons beyond those with a nursing focus.”

~ Virginia “Chris” Muckler, Assistant Professor

“I chose nursing. I began in pre-medicine, thinking I wanted to be a doctor. However, I quickly realized that I wanted more contact with patients and their families. I have loved nursing since the first day and have never regretted that decision.”

~ Beth Phillips, Assistant Professor

Head over to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and share your nursing story - Did nursing choose you or did you choose nursing? Or share your most monumental nursing moment.

Happy Nurses Week and thank you for all that you do!