This will be my last post as I am leaving Westside Internal Medicine to go back to Providence St. Vincent Hospital. It has been an absolute pleasure working with each and every one of you and it is with great sadness that I say goodbye.
Janine is our new Nurse Care Manager. She comes to us with a stellar nursing background having worked with Washington County as an RN for 5 years, with OHSU Family Practice at Gabriel Park for 4 years, and has spent the last year as a home health nurse. In working with her I have been impressed with her compassion, energy, nursing knowledge and, most of all, her passion for patient advocacy. She is the perfect person for this job and I hope you all have the pleasure of working with her through the duration of this project.
Now, for the good stuff. The stuff that relates to our health and well-being. Something that has become apparent to me during my nursing career is that a majority of us lack compassion for ourselves. We are hard on ourselves to the point of being unforgiving, many of us have little positive self-regard, and many of us have experienced great difficulty in our lives from which we have a difficult time recovering. Lack of self compassion can often lead to lack of self-care or even self-abuse, both of which then lead to depression and poor health. I came across an article in the New York Times regarding self-compassion that I would like to share with you as my "swan song". Please read it and try to incorporate self-compassion into your lives. You will all be better off for it, both in health and well-being!
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E1DE143EF932A35750C0A9679D8B63&ref=taraparkerpope
Thank you all so much for the honor and privilege of allowing our relationship. I will miss you more than you will know ...
Nurse Susan
