Sorry to have been so incognito...as happens every summer we have an influx of new RNs who graduated in May. I have been quite focused since vacation in trying to revise our nursing internship program and meet needs identified from various sources.

I have six. Five for telemetry monitored floors and one for our heart surgery recovery. They range in age from 22 to ?? (older,a mom of six). They are extremely bright and motivated which also tends to make them frustrated with both too little information or too much.

They are, as in any group, a gathering of individuals. The oldest is returning to work outside the home now that her youngest (of six) is 12. Her oldest (a son) suffered hypoxic brain damage when their house burned down when he was a toddler. She has amazing strength and compassion.

One is newly separated on her way to divorce and rearing three daughters (the age of ours) while finishing school and starting a new career. She is working seven days a week to maintain her insurance until hers activates here.

One is my first nurses' child as both her parents are ER nurses. She is wonderfully pragmatic and calm as she has grown up with hospital talk her whole life.

One is a "recovered" anorexic who is very aware of her needs for control and her responses as she has been through a lot of therapy. She is bright and fast thinking and is extremely kind and open.

One is a mom and a woman of faith with tremendous capacity for compassion and support. She is joy personified and has the most trust.

The last seemed hardest to "get" for me. She tends to be nervous and mistrustful. Today at lunch she told us she was reared by an abusive father who left her and her mom when she was fifteen. They received no support. At eighteen, her mom died of cancer and her father (who gave up parental rights the year before so he would not have financial responsibility for her) gave her no physical, emotional or monetary support during her grief or the months of nursing school. I am proud of her for sharing her story and am able to understand her needs for security and to honor that her doubts cannot be brushed aside with words. She will be my "show me you mean it" person.

So, it has been a week of being an ambassador for our hospital and for our profession, a mentor for women experiencing tremendous pressures and life changes, a teacher of incredible and facinating anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology. My job is to present all the puzzle pieces in such a way that in their stressed states they learn how to put the puzzle together to meet the needs of their patients, their families, their fellow careteam members without ignoring their own needs and those of their families.

It is tremendously rewarding but physically and emotionally draining. Each concept must be presented in a way that does not bore the first to get it but does not overwhelm the last. They must feel respected and valuable.

Still, when I leave this world I will know what I do has made a difference and that is a tremendous boon to the spirit.