As you’ve likely heard, AMSN made the difficult decision to hold its annual convention fully virtually this year for the second year in a row. It was a difficult decision and one the Board of Directors didn’t take lightly.

As Medical-Surgical Nurses, we know how important it is to teach our patients the importance of taking care of themselves, but often that same knowledge does not translate into action for taking care of our own individual health and well-being. Nursing can be a very rewarding and stressful job at the same time, which can impact our health.

In nursing school, most of us recall learning about Florence Nightingale, known as the "Lady with the Lamp," and all of her efforts to improve sanitation, healthcare reform through education, and advance the nursing profession.

I'm a genderqueer and in a same birth sex marriage.  Yes, I still have the competency and the skill to be your nurse.  My gender identity plays no part in my ability to save your life or notify the doctor of a critical clinical change.

It is not uncommon that most of the new nurses in hospitals right now are new graduates. They are experiencing their first few weeks out of nursing school and learning to practice in the real world. After 20 years of being a nurse, I still remember my first few months as a brand new nurse caring for patients on a medical-surgical unit.

It certainly is disheartening and maddening to see the fourth COVID wave marching through our communities, our towns and cities, and our states, not to mention other areas of the globe.