A New Day

It's Saturday. I slept in this morning until 0730. Usually I am up at 0500 but when my husband is away I tend to sleep poorly - or take a while to get off to sleep and that means I don't wake up as well in the morning. The dogs and I went for our walk taking our usual route. I fully expected to run into a number of people since we walked at a more civilised hour today, but we were the only ones out. Surprising given the beauty of the morning; a brilliant blue southern hemisphere sky flecked with wispy clouds and a bright, bold, golden sun pouring out warmth and light on a peaceful land where birds flit to and fro happily singing and calling to each other. Sometimes although there is no evidence of the vines the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle waft past. A wonderful way to start the day.

As I walked I thought about this land we live in - Australia and my little paradise, Tasmania. I thought about the blessings and priviliges we take for granted and accept as out right and I thanked God, who after all, is the Creator of all that we see and the giver of all blessings. It helped me begin to put everything back in perspective.

Perspective? Why do you need to put things back you might ask. Well I had a pretty ordinary week at work and, whether we like it or not, usually if things go wrong at work that tends to colour the way we see things in the other part of our life as well. I was letting work creep in to the rest of my life and destroy my peace. When that happens I fret and worry and ruminate on work to such as extent that I may as well be there because I can't focus on things at home. Not good! Hence the walk this morning, the thinking and the perspective thing. Work has its place, of course it does. However, it needs to stay there where it belongs and not be allowed to invade the other place where I find respite and renewal.

So I wanted to write about it because to me its important, and perhaps I may need to reread this occasionally to remind myself that there is more to life than work. The wind has come up again now and, although the sky is as brilliant as ever and the sun as bright it's not quite as peaceful outside as it was earlier. So I'm glad I am inside doing what I need to do here. The aroma of freshly baked chocolate mud cake causes the nose to twitch instead of the delicate fragrance of jasmine and honeysuckle and the sound of the washing machine has replaced the birdsong yet still there is a sense of being at peace - it's within me as is the sense of knowing that God has it all under control.

How can it be November 21st already? My friend Cecily came in this morning and chattered on about how tiring it is to try and come up with daily blogs. She is in some competition apparently. Not sure what the prize is if she wins but it must be worth it - or perhaps its just the challenge of doing it.

I was thinking about challenges recently. How often have I moved on from a job because I've no longer been challenged? Too often. I'm better at getting things up and running, making them happen than doing the sustaining. I get that restless, almost bored feeling when everything is ticking along. But sometimes we need to just 'keep on keeping on' to persevere, run the race etc!

It's not easy to keep on when bureaucracy and politisization dictate how and when, and at times, if, things are done. Nursing seems to be in the thick if it these days - well health generally is in the thick of it. It can be extremely frustrating trying to get the best outcome for our patients through ensuring our nurses are current with knowledge and skills when we are constantly told 'there isn't any money'.

About being current...George Siemans, who advocates Connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age, says we need effective learning representative of what learners require in order to stay current today and it needs to be effective, relevant, sustainable learning. Siemans also says that ineffective models of learning function are not noticed for their weakness when they are not under pressure. But, when the climate of knowledge and information changes, then the weaknesses become pronounced. The climate we are in at the moment is showing up the weaknesses in our current models of learning. So, I thought, what does this mean for nurses in the hospital setting and their on-going learning? What does it mean for me in my role?

This can remain a frustration and can be seen as part of that sustaining mode OR it can be seen as a challenge! Nurses are good at taking on challenges. We are also good at being very creative with very little. So...my goal for next year is to work on putting together a professional development and education plan that encourages and facilitates effective, relevant, sustainable learning! How am I going to do that you ask? I'll let you know. I was up for a few hours in the early hours one morning last week and spent the time doing a Mind Map. Today I need to take that to the Senior Nurse Group and sell my plan - or at least discuss my thoughts since I don't yet have a plan to sell.

So it looks like I'll be here for a while now that the challenge has come back in to the equation. I'll let you know how today goes when I next post :o).