Time-lapse perspective of your nursing career

There are some amazing time-lapse photography images out there. Images of faces, landscapes, astronomical and meteorological phenomena captivate audiences around the globe, in all types of culture. We seldem stop to appreciate "life" as it passes us by. One trip on the ride is all you get.

As I look at these photo compilations, I am amazed at the patience and perserverance the photographer has with his/her art. Each picture is designed to complement the rest, in sequence. The overall effect is that of transition and transformation through paced progression. The artist captures the beauty and individual significance of each still moment, and combines these unique traits to form a pattern that yields an overall completeness. And this is what I think of as I see nursing.

Apply this to your individual nursing practice. Take a few "mental snapshots" of a few significant (and perhaps some more typical) events which occurred during your time as a nurse. Perhaps you started when you entered nursing school, or maybe when you were much younger, pretending as a child. In either instance the concept is the same. Continue this until present day. Now begin playing these events, one by one. Can you see the transition and transformation? See your career change... your life change... as you sequence through these images? Then take it a step further, and add your dreams and goals from this point forward. It takes on an entirely different feel. Now, imagine any one of these events not occurring, or maybe happening with a different outcome. Does the overall effect change? Maybe, maybe not. I think it depends on the event and the point in your progression it occurs.

Now "Google Earth" that image back a bit, expanding the view of nursing as a whole. Think about your career in nursing, the changes you have seen, and apply this individually to the profession as a whole. Our collective practices have a transitional effect on the whole of nursing. What we do matters. The problem is that we don't often stop to think of our contributions as being those "still pictures" in the overall "time-lapse" progression of our profession. We are part of something much larger than ourselves, or even our careers; yet our contributions remain significant to the overall success and vitality of the profession for generations to come. We know what we know because of those generations before us, learning from their "snapshots", and placing a relative interpretation pertinent to our current practice. What we need to do next, then, is to continue that momentum (applying a bit of complexity science fundamentals along the way), and imagine what we would see.

We should appreciate the moments we have now, embrace our individual "collections of snapshots", and know that we are part of something great. Every patient we touch, every life we welcome into the world, and every one we help transition out of it, they all have one thing in common: we were there to extend our caring hearts and skillful hands in assistance. What you do matters. Don't ever forget that.

What seems insignificant, or even life-altering, throughout our years adds up to a unique "time-lapse" presentation of nursing, and how these moments can combine to create a beauty that we all should hope to view someday...and perhaps someday we will.

Maybe some of our grand theorists saw this view of nursing, and each chose a different way of describing it? You never know.

Never lose sight of your hopes and dreams. Sometimes they are the clearest pictures we will ever see.

Thank you.

Steve