Welcome to the New Nurses with Disabilities Forum!

Sounds like you want to do the best you can and that makes a difference ! Keep the faith!

Hi,

What is the name of your boook? I am interested in the read. Thanks!!!

Sharona97

Yes, Fran -- what is the name of your book as I would like to read also.

hi brian and staff-thanks for the email when i had not visited for awhile(some mild health isssues-getting tested and still working)THRILLED when i came on and saw the nurses with disabilities thread.I have diabetes and hypertension but have several friends who are nurses with more serious disabilities and you can bet your bottom dollar (as they saw)i will be telling them about this site!!thanks for thinking of us

I am a seasoned RN down with my 3rd back injury, all of which included sciatica. I am on Workers Comp. at this time and I am waiting for back surgery. I know I cannot work on the floor any longer, so I decided to go back to school to get my BSN and maybe more. That way, when I am recovered physically, I can pursue a less physical avenue in nursing. I hope to specialize in hospice and palliative care.

I am also glad for this thread. I have not had anything major diagnosed but I have had quite a few medical problems during my nursing career which made it difficult for me to work. At one point, I worked transcription because it was less stress on my body. Once I had surgery, I was able to return to nursing.

daddysfatty...what a wonderful idea to continue your education! I'm currently working a position where I can sit and still use my critical thinking skills with patients. Have thought about possibly studying forensic nursing.

I am wishing everyone here a wonderful new year and may it be a little less painful.

Hi! Twix, and everyone,

Please don't despair and good luck with your boards! The opportunities in nursing for people with disability are awesome. You will find your place. I was an ICU nurse for over 20 yrs. and now do classroom teaching. I have Lupus, and would like to share two important things I learned the hard way. One: I must get adequate rest, and if that means I MUST decide that I can do that, or that, but not that..... I have to. :angryfire Two: I share openly, at appropriate times, that I have Lupus. The disease does not define me, but it does define what I can do. Or not. I stumble and lurch into walls alot, and fall on occasion, and would absolutely hate to have someone think I had a drug or substance abuse problem. I have found that on all the nurse teams I worked, we inevitably shared personal details and life issues. Nurses are genetically programmed that way, I think. But say only what is comfortable for you. sue

Wonderful post Sue. I hope it gives Twix some encouragement.

I have six years experience as a homecare and hospice nurse. I have struggled mightily throughout my schooling (I have a BSN and a BA in anthropology) and work history as a nurse to overcome my disabilities. I have PTSD and DID (dissociative identity disorder aka multiple personalities), and am a survivor of extreme abuse. In 2005 when I was working full time as a hospice nurse my whole life came crashing down around me and I developed Fibromyalgia as well. There is a long story as to how it became necessary for me, my husband and children to flee the state we were living in. We moved under emergency circumstances across the country and my life was just reduced to rubble.

I thought that I would never work again and applied for complete disability, which was of course denied. I know that I could get a lawyer and fight it, but there is this active voice in my head that just won't let me give up. I just don't believe that I am totally disabled. I want to fight and recover. So, I have been focusing on picking up the pieces of my life and on recovery and healing for the last two years, and finally feel like I am emerging out of a dark, frightening tunnel. I thought that I would never go back to nursing.

Part of why I am reconsidering this is that since moving our financial situation has been precarious at best. My husband does not have a strong career skill and so we have been very impoverished. Then he came down with two serious illnesses in Dec. of last year (diverticulitis and kidney cancer). He recently had two successful surgeries for both conditions and is in recovery from those.

His being ill and in the hospital put me in the environment where I reconnected with the nurse in me. I kept asking myself how the environment felt, if I could see myself working in it. I started to feel very positive about not only going back to nursing, but attempting to enter into the previously terrifying world of acute care nursing for the first time. I really think I can do it, but I am of course afraid of being wrong.

I seriously need encouragement and wise counsel. One big question I have is that I know that every unit of a hospital is a busy place, but I was wondering if some might be busier than others? One thing that is giving me confidence that I may be able to be successful at acute care nursing is the offering of nurse residency programs at the local hospital, which were not available when I was starting out in another state. With this kind of support and focus on job training, I feel much more confident.

I noticed that right now the local hospital is offering a nurse residency in Oncology, part time nights. I have been agonizing about applying for this job. The part time would be a good way to ease into the job and feel my way in it, but nights might be bad for my fibromyalgia. I am wondering if oncology is of higher acuity than other med-surg units or not. I have experience with oncology from a hospice perspective, and I am comfortable dealing with sorrow and tragic circumstances.

I so want to be successful and make the right choices. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Eliana

Wilbur'sMom,

In reading your post to Twix, you mentioned you teach somewhere. Do you teach at a university/college? Have you ever had a student with a disability? Thanks.

great idea.

Hi! Everyone, and Eliana,

Good Morning! and it has warmed up to 10 degrees outside, and I ache in joints I didn't know I had! I teach high school 11th and 12th grade, a Health Occupation and Nurse Aide curriculum, after ICU nursing and RN and LPN ed. I am blessed to be able to work part time, and that my lupus meds help me so much. Eliana, I applaud your courage to share about yourself, and to work to make your life, as it has been dealt to you, as good as you can. I vote go for the part time night job, but remember that getting enough rest is key, so don't get sucked into double shifts and over time. I believe you are alot stronger than you give yourself credit for. I believe "seeing" our disabilities is key to taking ownership of them, and running with them! And if it doesn't work out, at least you can say you tried. Hi! Student1000, I have worked with nurses and others, who have MS, lupus, several different types of both, (it is not unuasual anymore to hear someone say, hey, you, too?, or my... has that,) using a brace or electric w/c prn, students needing amplified stethoscopes, a friend at work with polio, service dogs with owners who work in Social Services. And made friends in my lupus support group with people who are hairdressers, retail sales people, office nurses, have a relative with fibro who is a med transcriptionist. Just don't give up, even if some days are harder than others. And some days are really tough.

Hugs,

sue.

thank you so much for this forum i have seizure disorder now controlled by med. anyway thanks so much