A nurse practitioner's faithful journey: From injury and suffering to becoming an ordained UCC minister

 

                                                                        The Rev. Cleo Graham, RN, MS, FNP

Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School shared an alumni profile:

 "Cleo Graham attended Adelphi University, where she met her husband and began to pursue her career in nursing. She held many different roles in her thirty-year career as a nurse, variously working as a critical care nurse, as director of home care for the VA Hospital, and as an employee health supervisor with over nine hundred employees. She taught for a time, attained a master’s degree as a nurse practitioner, and organized community health programs with churches. She also identified that many veterans living at home were suffering from what she identifies as a “broken relationship with God” and that they needed spiritual care in addition to mental and physical health care. Working with chaplains, she developed one of the nation’s first medical codes for spiritual distress, billable services by which chaplains could provide spiritual health care to patients in need." 

"Then, she experienced a catastrophic injury of her spinal disks, caused by a fall while helping a patient. Bedridden for about a year, she would imagine talking to God about her suffering and wrote notes to document this conversation. The result was the book From Mess to Message."

"She began an aggressive regimen of physical therapy and eventually transitioned to walking with a cane. One day, her husband surprised her by driving her to Andover Newton Theological School because he knew that she had always wanted to be a pastor. He brought her to the chapel and she walked inside…"

 "Now this chapel was built in such a way that it’s all windows completely around, so you can look in and see. I was the only one in this chapel, and this huge Bible was open. It was open to Ecclesiastes 3: There’s a time and season for everything. A time to be born, and a time to die. The tears just rolled down my face. I felt like I was going to get the pages wet. I stepped back and sat down and thought about it, and I said, “Well, maybe I can do it.” 

"After graduating from Andover Newton Rev. Cleo Graham served as an associate pastor at several churches in Rhode Island before accepting the call to serve as the pastor of Hartford’s Faith Congregational Church in November 2020." 

Read more about the Reverend Cleo Graham at:

https://andovernewton.yale.edu/alumniae/alumniae-profiles/reverend-cleo-graham-fnp-mdiv-12?fbclid=IwAR3VLRAc_zOCBj9pHmi-7QnaJ3DUqN6aY2DvC1lACOvijNKMtYJBfuRsE00

Cheers!

Donna

Dr. Carolyn Burr, Nurse practitioner pioneer in stopping mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS

 

"Dr. Carolyn Keith Burr, a pediatric nurse practitioner and educator who helped save the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world through her work on the prevention of HIV/AIDS in pregnant women and children, died on Friday, October 30, 2020 at Chilton Hospital in New Jersey. She was 71. The cause of death was complications from acute pancreatitis."

"While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University Nursing School, Dr. Burr first became active in bringing health care to those in need. Joining a coalition of health professionals, she helped bring clinics to remote areas in the Tennessee mountains where health care was scant."

"After obtaining a Masters Degree in Nursing from University of Rochester, she and her first husband, Richard Burr, moved to New Jersey in 1987. She took a job at Newark Children's Hospital in a special clinic devoted to treating mothers and their babies for an unknown disease, which later was identified as HIV/AIDS. For the next 27 years, her career was devoted to stopping mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Along the way, she acquired a Doctoral degree in Adult Education from Teachers College at Columbia University."

"Over the years, as treatments became available and the death rate in maternal transmission dropped to near zero, Dr. Burr rose to Associate Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center at Rutgers University and traveled around the world teaching medical professionals the life-saving treatments she had helped pioneer. She was greatly admired and honored with numerous awards."

"In 1998, Carolyn was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She continued her career and travels until she became confined to a wheelchair, retiring in 2014." 

Read more about Carolyn Burr here.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/northjersey/obituary.aspx?n=carolyn-burr&pid=197076708

I taught with Carolyn for a few years in the 1980s.

We lost a good one!

RIP,

Donna

Meet Victoria Cliff: A nursing student with autism and mental health challenges

 

                                                                  Victoria Cliff, Student Children's Nurse

Victoria shared her journey in an article published by the Children and Young People Student Network in the UK.

"I have Autism, and this will be with me for life. I have always had it and I always will have it. My brain works differently to others, I communicate differently, I process things differently - but these also become my strengths."

"Autism probably seems like enough to put some barriers in place to me getting where I want. But I have also battled with mental illness for as long as I can remember, and I have had days where tomorrow looked like it would never come. It caused me to drop out of my A levels because I got too unwell, and then when I started a different course a few months later, I only managed 5 days. At this point, I truly felt I would never be able to reach my goals. I felt like my education ended at GCSE’s because I just couldn’t get any further without losing myself to mental illness."

"These built barriers and walls in my way to success. I had no idea how I would get to where I wanted to be, I almost just accepted a lower quality of life than what I deserved. But I fought. I battled to be where I am."

"Then, I got my offer to study children’s nursing. I felt over the moon. I was there, I was going to get my goal after all. Starting university is difficult for anyone, then add into the mix my life and it was complicated. I almost gave up several times that first month. I wasn’t good enough; I could never do it. But the support from my lecturers and the university made a difference, proved that I could do it. Placement proved to me even more that I could do it, making a difference to families every day and I loved the feeling of helping people."

Read more about Victoria here:

https://cypstnnetwork.wixsite.com/cypstudentnetwork/post/disabled-nursing-student-from-diagnosis-to-university

Cheers!

Donna

Jordann Nagel, BSN, RN beat test anxiety through perseverance!!!

                                                                                         Jordann Nagel, BSN, RN
 

*"Hi, I'm Jordann and I'm gonna be your nurse today."  

I was set to graduate nursing school in May of 2019 but failed a class in the last semester of my program, and had to retake it over the next summer. I took the NCLEX for the first time in October of 2019 and was devastated when I failed the first time and again when I failed in December.

I took my third attempt at the NCLEX in May of 2020 after completing the Hurst review and again, was unsuccessful. The next month I had a miscarriage at 20 weeks and took a break from studying to grieve. I scheduled my next attempt for January 6th of 2021 and failed for the 4th time.

I've battled testing anxiety since the very beginning of my nursing journey and have struggled with answering the NCLEX style questions. I graduated from a 4 year school with a bachelor's degree and have done so many content reviews it's insane.. I know the material and am great in a clinical setting, but you put me in front of a computer for 4 hours and I blank.

I've been very open about my NCLEX journey on tiktok, and I had so many people reach out to me and tell me to listen to the Mark Klimek audios on YouTube. So I listened to all of his audios and took my own notes, slept with them under my pillow, and gave myself the pep talk of my life in the mirror before taking my 5th attempt at the NCLEX this past Thursday.

With tears in my eyes and a fire in my soul I am proudly screaming at the top of my lungs.. JORDANN NAGEL, BSN RN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am here to tell you to never give up on your dreams! Push yourself and keep going until you get there! I freaking did it!!!!!! School is extremely difficult and the NCLEX is terrifying but none of that matters anymore since receiving my licensure number. I am a NURSE and you will be too!

After all, the only time you really fail is if you give up. PERSEVERANCE IS KEY!

Jordann's Tiktok and Instagram are @Jordannnagel.

*This was originally posted to a Facebook group and reposted here with Joardann Nagel's permission.

Congratulations Jordann!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Donna

Disabled actor turns to ExceptionalNurse.com for inspiration and guidance developing a character who is a nurse with a disability!

 Recently, I received this email: 

Dear Donna,

My name is Diana Elizabeth Jordan.  I am a Los Angeles based actress who lives with cerebral palsy (which mildly affects my speech and gait). I am reaching out to let you know how invaluable your website was to me recently.

Last Friday, (March 5) I had a guest starring role on Heartbeats (an improvised medical dramedy produced by Jessica Lynn Verdi and Mary Chieffo) which is on Friday's 6 P.M. PST on the Twitch channel). The character I portrayed was Nurse Lollie Blake-Pimperton, Pediatric NP. I was really excited to play a nurse who had a disability and read about other real life  nurses with disabilities. I even got the coloring book.

 I am in awe of what real nurses do and how much you have done especially this past year. Even though the show (which was filmed on Zoom) was improvised and had a lot of comedic elements, it was very important to me especially-since I was a guest star and I am not sure when I will be back, to ground the character in reality. I do hope I represented your profession well.

So I just wanted to thank you. I have included a link to a few of my scenes and also the entire show because the show is really good and the series regulars are awesome.  I hope you enjoy it.  

Thank you for your time and consideration,

 Peace and Grace 

Diana Elizabeth Jordan

Actor*Solo Artist* Theater & Filmmaker

SAG-AFTRA/AEA

 Disability Influencer/Artist Educator

www.dianaelizabethjordan.com

Diana Elizabeth Jordan Lollie Scenes

https://vimeo.com/521935887

Heartbeats episode 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbU9dwL4Kd8&t=32s

 

 Cheers!

Donna

Exciting news for nurses who use service dogs. Times and guidelines are changing!

 

People Magazine reports that a "golden retriever has been trained to be a laboratory assistant for his disabled neuroscientist owner — and even wears his own canine PPE."

"Service dog Sampson is required to wear PPE for safety reasons as he helps owner Joey Ramp conduct her crucial lab work every day."

"Joey, 56, suffered traumatic head injuries following a serious horse-riding accident in 2006 and returned to education to gain a better understanding of the human brain."

"Sampson, dressed in goggles and a lab coat, is the first-ever canine to be granted access to a chemistry laboratory at The University of Illinois."

"If I drop something in the lab, he'll come to my side, and I can use him as a brace to kneel down and pick up what I need," said Joey of Champagne, Illinois, who is also a disability advocate. Sampson is also on hand to spot signs and react to Joey's PTSD."

Great news for nurses who use service dogs!

Read more at:

https://people.com/pets/golden-retriever-service-dog-works-as-lab-assistant/?amp=true&fbclid=IwAR2LyI74BuaFRzZbqgAQpD5WkTRRiIkd09iZOSIm92z7f2WfX7JQRDDyT2w

Cheers!

Donna

For nurses with disabilities: How do you inform an employer that accommodation isn't working?

 

According to the Job Accommodation Network (JAN):

"There isn’t a specific way that employees are required to handle this type of situation, but here are some things for employees to consider:

You need to inform your employer that the alternative accommodation isn’t effective. Otherwise, the employer has no duty to reopen the accommodation process or to reconsider your original request. You can inform your employer any way you want, but in our experience, it can be useful to do it in writing so you have a record.

Your employer needs to know why the alternative accommodation isn’t overcoming your limitations and enabling you to perform your job or access benefits of employment. This information will help the employer better understand the situation.

You can remind your employer what your original accommodation request was and why you requested it so the employer has all the necessary information easily available. You also can ask that your original accommodation be reconsidered (unless your employer already gave you a valid reason why it cannot be provided). You can explain how the accommodation you requested will be effective and enable you to perform your job or access benefits of employment.

If you think it would help to meet with your employer again, you can suggest that in your letter, and if you think additional medical information would help your employer understand the situation better, you can include that as well."

For more information and a sample letter, visit:

https://askjan.org/articles/How-to-Inform-an-Employer-That-an-Accommodation-is-Not-Effective-and-a-Sample-Letter.cfm

Cheers!

Donna