9 shifts

I cleaned up my desk today.  

I've collected a lot of paperwork in the past 4 years!

I'm closing one chapter in my life and starting another.

Soon, my most able Vice President will be my president, and I will be a member of her executive board.

I will also be her state federation Vice President. 

For this to happen, I not only must give up the presidency of the local I have devoted the last 4 years to, I must give up bedside nursing.

I am ready to do both.

It's time.

I have served with an incredible executive board and I move on to serve with an equally increadable board.

I am excited by what we will accomplish together. 

Yet.

The Backus Federation of Nurses is like my child and bedside nursing has been life.  

21 years in the same emergency room is a long time and I will admit the work has never been this difficult but I do worry a bit that I will miss the patients, the give an take, the trying to find their sense of humor to ease their mind and their pain.

And I will miss those patients with whom I know my skills made a difference, the heart attracks who's EKG returned to normal because of my quick interventions, the strokes who regained movement because I administered clot busters quickly, the septic patients who reqained a blood pressure comparable with life because I gave them fluids and antibiotics stat.

When I cared for these patients, time stood still. Four hours could go by in the blink of an eye.  On days like that I was like the baseball player who saw each pitch as if in slow motion, saw each seam of the ball as it came to home plate.

I also worry about my fellow nurses, whom I have hugged and consoled when they lost a patient, especially a young one.

I know someone else will be there for the patients, and for the nurses.

But still...

I have 9 shifts left.

When I leave, I leave knowing I have an obligation to fight like hell for these nurses and all the workers we represent, in healthcare, education and the private sector. 

And because I know I will have the opportunity to do that, and an incredible group of leaders and staff to work with, am ready for the new chapter of my life to begin.