An Unexpected and Exciting Shove in the Right Direction

Yesterday I decided to attend one of the workshops that was sort of outside of my traditional interests. It was all about adolescents. The first presenter talked about school based health center and teens access to reproductive health services at the centers and the second presenter spoke about the use on online social networking sites for teens to communicate and interact with each other and strangers. Even though I hadn't anticipated it both presenters spoke about topics that were 100% relevant to my practice.

I work for a mobile health program in Boston that does clinics throughout the Boston and MA area to offer people in the community free HIV/STI screenings, linkage to healthcare, and medical case management. In recent weeks my program in particular has seen a rather large increase in the numbers of adolescents that we are serving, mostly 15-18 year olds. Being able to hear some of the strategies these women employed through the health centers and through their online modeling was both interesting and though provoking for me.

I began asking questions about the teens use of others apps and things that were completely relevant to my practice. Tools my organization already uses to do outreach to the MSM population. It appeared according to both of my speakers that no one was doing that kind of research. Then something strange happened and they both wanted to speak with me afterwards.

Now this wasn't particularly unusual as a lot of the presenters wanted to speak with people after their presentations. However, what was unusual was one presenters willingness to speak with me for well over one hour.

I am not going to give a name as I want to respect people's privacy, I'm sure she had no idea she was talking to the guy keeping the blog. The woman however, spoke with me at great length about how to take my idea and make it into a full-fledged research proposal. She encouraged me to tease out the problems, determine funding sources, and pushed me to simply begin the research.

Then she continued to ask me questions and advise my education. She gently nudged me to go back to school for PhD in Nursing. This is by no means a new concept for me as many of my nursing professors and deans have told me that this is the path I should take. What was different this time is that this woman did not know who I was from a hole in the wall. Based on my questions, my brief conversation with her, and my enthusiasm/concern for the topic I was asking questions about she determined that I had no other choice than to go back to school as soon as possible because, "those kids need you."

The whole situation caused a temporary feeling of anxiety and being completely overwhelmed. Someone outside of my nursing world in Boston had just affirmed everything everyone else had been telling me for almost a year. And the only concern she left me with was, "Am I too young?" She and the other professors I have don't seem to think so but I can't help but feel this is still somewhat out of reach for someone like me. I just graduated and passed my boards in May. I have only been an RN for 7 months. I know this is a silly concern, but I wanted to be "just" a nurse for longer before I went back and started the process of getting my PhD.

There are still other things I want to do and research, but I realize that it would be much easier to do if I simply had the better degree. I did what all grown-ups do....and called my mother. I told her about the wonderful nurse I had met and how she had encouraged me to go back and my mother in her infinite wisdom was able to calm me down. "Well you just have to take it piece by piece you can't do everything all at once. I knew this was going to happen. These people have all been doing this for years...they did their nursing and now they do that along with the research. There is nothing wrong with taking your time." Thank God for our mothers sometimes.

I guess that this situation is one of the benefits of a big conference like this. The nurses with more experience mentor and encourage the nurses with less experience to go back to school, to continue to do research, and to continue to improve the profession. I am truly grateful to be here and I am truly thankful that I met that nurse yesterday because I definitely needed the outside affirmation that nursing and an eventual PhD were all things that should be on my radar screen!