LPN graduation speech

I had the privilege of being asked to be the keynote speaker at an LPN graduation at the local Vo-tech Center in town on February 12, 2009. I prayed and poured over my speech for days. I so much wanted it to be a blessing. I did struggle knowing my peers, my co-workers would be present and then they would know my heart. It's always hard to put yourself completely and open to the world. I understand many people were affected by it in a GOOD way....got a lot of good feedback. Praise the Lord!!!

I got to the podium and did a bit of ad libbing. I mentioned how glad I was that there were nurses in the room because I had just thrown about 3 PVC's in a row and was a bit lightheaded. Then I took a deep breath and was a little choked up when I thanked them for asking me to be there tonight. I did confirm the rumor that I had in fact cried at being asked. I told them all how beautiful they looked and how I never get over watching the graduates walk into the room. Then I began what was written.....I also know how difficult it is to have to listen to my speech when all you really want to do is graduate!! You want that diploma and pin in your hand!! I remember! But I also remember trying to soak in every event of my graduation evening. I encourage you to do the same! You earned this night. Your family and friends and classmates earned this night. So soak it all in! The one thing you can count on is that I was one of your greatest cheerleaders on the sidelines, wanting you to succeed. When your paths crossed mine and I smiled at you and asked you how you were doing, that was really me just rooting you on, waiting for you to make it to this night.
I know what it took for you to get here tonight. I know of the long nights of studying and the early morning before the roosters have even crowed, study groups. I know of the time you missed with family and friends where you yearned to be with them but you knew you had to spend time studying just to pass your next test. I am aware of the tears of frustration on the days you had to leave your sick child so you didn’t miss school, or the angst of leaving your newborn behind so you can finish what you started. I also know how you will never be the same again. I found a quote the other day and it reminded me so much of all of you. It is a definition of persistence. Persistence. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded Genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone will bring success.
I know that you did not get here alone. Spouses, significant others, children, parents and friends of these ladies, you sacrificed as well. Please just know that the time that was taken from you was put to good use. It really was as hard as they said it was. Ladies, Look to your left and look to your right. Look in the audience and look to the platform. I want you to hold your head high and know you have achieved a great milestone in your life but I encourage you to be thankful for the team who got you there. For me, I am going to add the strength of the Lord to my team members. I am all that I am because of Him. You are going to walk away from this one year experience a new woman. You just accomplished one of the hardest things in your entire lifetime! You have probably received new eyes to see life and people in a different light. You have made deep sincere friendships with people you may have not given a second look to prior to school. You have cried tears together and had many laughs. I know this because I’ve heard the stories! You shared 4am phone calls to help each other get to your next goal in class. You’ve been part of a birth of two new babies and listened as your classmates endured the hardships of life while trying to pass nursing school. I still feel as if I can do anything just because I completed this LPN course.
I remember coming into your classroom a year ago and you looked so scared and so overwhelmed. I wish I could tell you that will go away because you are no longer a student but it doesn’t! The great thing though is that you are now equipped for those days. You have had the best instructors possible to teach you what you needed to know to start your nursing practice. You can trust what they taught you because I live it every day I clock in at work. They taught me to treat the patient as if they were my own family and that is an ideal I have not put aside. You are going to care for all walks of life. You are going to care for that man or woman who boasts about their relationship with the CEO of the hospital as soon as they walk into their room and you are going to care for the man or woman who hasn’t had a shower or a warm meal in days. You may hold in your arms a baby whose parents have walked out on them. You may also hold the hand of the man or woman who is taking their last breath and it is your voice they will hear as they enter into eternity. You need to make sure each patient knows that they matter to you, regardless. They deserve that and so do you after all the work you put into getting here.
Be excited about what you get to do! Being a nurse is just so cool! What we get to do is so cool! (ad libbed) Remember to smile! You set the tone! When you walk into a room, you are going to have people show you a respect and a reverence you know you don’t deserve but in their fear and trepidation, they are going to watch every move you make, every expression on your face and will listen to you with their eyes wide open. When you are doing an IV, remember that there was a day you couldn’t do that and had no idea what you were doing! When you are placing an NG tube or changing a bandage on a wound, remember what a privilege it is to be doing what you are doing. Revel in the joy in watching a patient leave doing well knowing you played a part in their care and their improving health. But also take to heart the responsibility you have in the patients’ care. Recall the voices of your instructor when there is a question. You are going to be faced with situations every day of your nursing career where you can choose to take a short cut or you can do what is right. I promise that in our nursing, sometimes we don’t get a chance to do it over right a second time. Sometimes the only chance we get is the first and only chance. I encourage you to always do what is right and best for the patient.
Because it is a privilege to be where you are today, there are certain responsibilities that come with it. Coming from a small community, you are going to be surprised at how many patients you will run into on your off time. You are still a nurse to them, even off the clock. Represent our vocation well. Allow your reputation to be flawless and be the kind of nurse your patients can trust, no matter what or when you cross their paths. Hold yourself to high standards. Choose to be a leader to your co-workers and to your community. Step up and be the kind of person anyone would want caring for their family. Be the kind of nurse, you would want caring for you.
Ladies, don’t let this moment be enough. Set goals for yourselves. Remember, our nursing does not affect just us but so many other people. Even if your final goal in nursing is to achieve your LPN, there is still much education that can be obtained in this career. Every bit of education is knowledge for you and knowledge is power. Knowledge helps you, the nurse, gain confidence which I promise, your patient will be able to sense. I cannot tell you how much more I enjoy my patient care knowing that if anything goes wrong, I have an understanding of my part in turning the bad around. That is not because I am now an RN, I have continued to receive education constantly even as an LPN since the day I left this school. In choosing to try to be a good example, I set personal goals. They may seem small to some but when I passed my ACLS class, I held my head so high! I was so proud to get my ACLS pin for my badge at work! My next goal was PALS and becoming a CPR instructor was the first professional goal I set for myself. After that, I set the goal of becoming a preceptor because I love to teach. I remember the thrill of learning something new. I wanted to be the catalyst for the next new nurse to learn. All of that was accomplished when I was an LPN.
There are a few lessons that hit me square in the face hard once I got my license. I thought I had to know it all. The greatest gift I received was the day I realized not one nurse does and that is OK! It’s ok to ask questions. It’s ok to ask for someone to come along to show you how to do a nursing skill you may not be as confident in. It’s ok to say, “I’ve never done this”. Give yourself permission to not know everything. I highly recommend being resourceful and finding out where the answers are contained but you don’t have to memorize them. Even now in the Recovery room on the weekends, when I know I will be alone, I take the time to find out who the House Supervisor is and let her know what I’m up to. I have her number memorized in case I have a question about my patient. I take time during downtime to brush up on my medicines and nursing skills. I will literally walk through the PACU in my mind, I go through the actions of certain skills to not forget.
I thought I was somehow not going to be affected by my patients emotionally. I naively believed I could put on my game face and could become someone else. I learned quickly and painfully that is not true. That has not changed my love of nursing, quite the opposite. There have been more than one occasion that I had to go around the corner and let my tears out and then put on my smile and go back in the room. I have sat on the side of the bed of a patient who was in her 40’s, just diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and cried with her. I cried during her last days when our paths continued to cross and we both knew she was going to die. I cried when just last month a lady I had been giving blood transfusions to for two years, also lost her fight to cancer. I still miss her and wish I could hold her hand one more time and hear her call me her angel, Wendy. I have learned to love and laugh and cry and hurt. I have learned that on most occasions to give my heart to the patient because that is how I best care for them. Just don’t be surprised when you fall in love over and over again with all walks of life.
Nursing is more than bringing a patient back to a healthy state physically. Sometimes that’s not the goal. It’s about holding their hand when they get bad news or are lonely. It’s about keeping the family informed so there are no surprises for them. It’s about being their advocate when the doctor just stopped by and used words they have never heard before. Its about bringing in their favorite dessert at the end of their life because you’re just so happy they want to eat or it’s about singing their favorite church hymn as they slowly, finally drift to sleep at night. It’s about bringing your patient a bag of bubble gum so he’ll never run out or a bunch of green onions they have been craving since they came in the hospital weeks ago. It’s about crying when you hear the poor prognosis or you are in the room when the doctor proclaims a new diagnosis of cancer that was totally unexpected. It’s not always about passing a medicine or performing a nursing skill. Sometimes, it’s just about listening. Being still and letting the patient talk. And I can tell you, even to this day, when I lose a patient I have taken care of, it hits me hard. I allow myself to cry.
Nursing is not just about the patient or the family either. As you learned this past year, it’s also about each other. You cannot do this alone. The absolute most profound life lesson I have learned in nursing is the importance of teamwork. I’ve been told and have seen with my own eyes the teamwork this class has had. I was so very impressed by that. When you see a fellow nurse having a real life struggle, take time to nurse him or her and hold her hand or give him a hug. Let them know you are there if they need someone to listen or take them a tissue when you see them crying. I’ve received two phone calls the last few months on SDS that made it difficult to concentrate for a moment and I needed a couple of minutes to compose myself. My wonderful co-workers literally swarmed me after one call and just took over. They didn’t even give me a chance to say yes. I cannot tell you what it meant to me to have a minute just to collect myself. The greatest words you can say to your co-worker are, “Is there anything I can do for you?” When you start that wonderful habit, it becomes contagious and others will come to you as well. Set your standard high and decide even now to be a leader in this area. I have worked on floors where teamwork didn’t exist at all and I’ve worked on floors where it is present every second. I feel like a better nurse when I have another nurse to put my head together with to get some answers in helping my patient get well. Put together a few nurses, you will hit the jackpot on behalf of that patient. Teamwork will become addicting and once you’ve experienced it in nursing, you will not be willing to settle for less.
Remember, this life is no longer about you. Just because you are no longer in school does not mean the learning stops, quite the contrary, you’ve only just begun. I’m sure you’ve heard at this point that you will learn more in the first six months as a new nurse than you did the last year of nursing school. You are also going to be taught nursing skills that are contrary to what you were taught here. The beauty of that is you get to choose. You get to set your own standard of nursing care.
Even on my worst days, I love what I get to do, what WE get to do. On the days that every patient comes into recovery room who isn’t breathing or their pain won’t get under control and I leave the hospital a complete zombie, I love nursing. On the days I know will be my last to take care of a patient because their life on earth is about over and I’m crying as I leave the building, I love nursing. And even on the days I am treated like a waitress, housekeeper, or maid, I love what We get to do. There is a Bible verse that my husband and I both live by, in Ephesians 4:1: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." I believe with all my heart that nursing is a calling on your life. It’s a tough calling, sometimes even painful, but a beautiful calling that can never be put into words. My prayer for you is that even on your worst days, you will love what we do.