As we end another week in this strange place, I am taken with overwhelming feelings of gratitude and admiration for the work that each of you has accomplished.
Dear Colleagues,
As we end another week in this strange place, I am taken with overwhelming feelings of gratitude and admiration for the work that each of you has accomplished. It is nothing short of amazing that the entire delivery of our program could be transformed in such a short time, and then shifted and refined again and again, all to prepare our students for the very different health care landscape that is emerging.
I also feel a wistful pang at the loss of the familiar. We have all suddenly become beginners. Our old, trusted ways have become unhinged. Our carefully mapped plans seem to come from another era, or another planet. We miss our families and friends. We see the half-faces of our colleagues on the front lines. We wonder at the numbers, and what will happen next.
As beginners, we have to find our path as if we have never walked it before. We are going to take wrong turns. We are going to trip, maybe fall. But we will not lose our direction. We will find the way, and keep moving forward.
With all that is changing around us, it's easy to feel like we are just putting out fires. Or even like we have been thrown into the fire. But this I know: One day we will emerge from the flames, forever changed. As fire tempers steel, our substance will be rearranged, our molecules aligned. We will be stronger. We will lose our brittleness and take on a singing resilience. We will hold a keen edge.
So, as the week finds its end, please be kind to yourselves. Be patient and forgiving of the fact that we are all beginners right now.
Believe, and persevere.
Kathleen Michael, PhD, RN, CRRN
Associate Professor and Chair
Organizational Systems and Adult Health
University of Maryland School of Nursing
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