In the field

Today I did something I love. I spent 2 hours giving a presentation to public health nurses, 30 of them from one local health department. The goal is to increase their understanding of being a professional, a public health professional, a nursing professional, whose job includes addressing health problems of populations, not only of individuals.They would say it is stretching their minds.

I value the time I spend "in the field", out of the "ivory tower". It's when I get a reality check on what is the current state of affairs. A reality check on how far away I am from where they are. A reality check on my own passions and commitments. More than once I acknowledged that my small diatribes were my soap boxes. But, soap boxes are closer to our hearts and passion than almost anything else. Why not claim, "This is my soap box, this is my passion, this is what I am willing to work hard to change." And, the really weird thing about soap boxes; we rarely know they are there until we step up on it and let the passion flow.

Most successful people who are admired, people who are famous say that they are successful because they are doing what they love. Me, working with public health nurses, to give them a sense of pride and confidence, and a sense of being able to make the next baby step of advancement. This is my passion. I don't expect a raise for doing this work. I don't expect a prize for doing this work. I do expect to have made a tiny improvement in people who themselves contribute to a better world.