Healing Hands and Words Was My Motto

Healing hands and words has been my motto, starting at an early age and continuing throughout my life. My childhood began a journey of caring for people. My early experiences started me on a path to prepare me for a future nursing role. I grew up in a small, rural town in West Virginia.

Not only did I enjoy assisting with people’s physical needs, I became involved in helping with others’ communication needs. I became my parents ‘mouthpiece,’ carrying messages from one parent to the other. My mom would tell me, ‘tell your dad such and such’. While caring for family and friends, I learned how kind words can prevent an argument and advance healing, while unkind words can start an argument, producing stress. It is my belief that people will heal quicker hearing healing words and being touched with ‘Healing Hands’. As I said, from an early age, I loved taking care of people, and I began to entertain the thought of becoming a nurse.

After I graduated from high school, I attended college, receiving an Associate of Science degree in Nursing (ASN). My first job was working in a Medical Surgical Hospital where I worked until the birth of my two sons. When I returned about two years later, I worked in another medical-surgical hospital which included psychiatric patients. I worked two to three days per week on 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shifts. During those years of nursing, I worked in various units, including urology, cardiac step-down, medical-surgical, and was floated to other units when needed.

As the years progressed, I made a decision to attain a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN). When I started taking classes to complete this degree, I received a scholarship from Ashland Oil, which paid a large portion of my tuition fees.While working on this degree , I visited in-home patients .One patient received kidney dialysis. Occasionally, I accompanied him to the dialysis treatments, providing stress management techniques. When I graduated with this degree ,I received a ‘Best Caregiver ‘ award.

My first job with psychiatric patients was at a local Mental Health Center. I worked with two other mental health professionals: one a social worker and the other a counselor. At that time ,patients were discharged after an extended stay from state mental institutions . Due to their years of confinement and no experience living independently, we taught them skills to assist them in living alone. This local Mental Health Center taught me a lot about caring for the chronic mentally ill patient. Then, I went back to work at a hospital which treated medical-surgical patients as well as psychiatric patients. I worked on a substance abuse and eating disorder unit. I believe that I learned as much as the patients in the informative groups. Also ,I learned that I was in an abusive marriage.

From this job,I went to work for Veterans Affairs Medical Center. On this job, I reviewed veterans’ medications and assessed their mental health status; then I reported the results to the psychiatrist. The other portion of my job duties was leading groups. One group was anger management; another group was with Korean prisoner of war (POW) veterans, which was mainly a support group. The next group with Vietnam veterans discussed problems occurring on the battlefield and since returning home.The last group with Vietnam veterans and their wives involved specific instances which occurred between the veteran and his wife, which often stemmed from combat experience.

Since I was already doing individual and group therapy, I chose to get a Master of Arts degree in counseling. In addition to my MA degree in counseling, I took a test and passed, becoming a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse.

At my last job , I worked at an in-patient psychiatric hospital. Initially, I worked as a staff nurse on a pediatric unit. After a few months, I was asked to work as a clinical coordinator on a geriatric unit and on the adult acute unit. Later, I became clinical coordinator in the forensic unit. This was considered an administrative position which involved the planning and efficient running of the units. I worked with a PhD psychologist who was the program director of the units. Together, we co-managed the running of the units. She was responsible for programming and managing the units, supervising therapists and counselors, ensuring individual and group therapy ran efficiently.

I supervised all of the nurses and mental health technicians, ensuring their training and ongoing supervision. Again, I worked at this facility for 10 years and retired. Now I am pursuing a career writing articles, telling my experiences, and sharing my expertise with the viewing audience.