We Learn For Life Itself

Our families, friend, and colleagues are our sources of support and joy and reason for being what we are and where we are today. Our sounding boards, our encouragers for the years spent in school.

In the Gallup poll, the Nursing profession has been consistently hailed by 82% of Americans as the most trusted profession in honesty and ethical standards for the 16th year in succession. This is big. Why? We touch people’s lives when they are most vulnerable. We provide care to family members and friends, assist those just entering the world and then exiting the world. 

We are caring scientists who contribute to the body of knowledge to improve lives and safety of those around us. We promote health, every day! We are in schools as the school nurses, in hospitals as bedside nurses, in academe as nurse educators, in public health as advocates of healthy populations, and in government shaping policy as nurse legislators. Now, more than ever, for those just coming into the profession and for those who have been in the profession, we are called and relied upon by the patients, families, and communities we serve, the populations we affect, and for healthcare worldwide to advocate for our profession and those lives we touch every day. 

Each one of us has a story to tell about why we chose the Nursing profession. Our glimpse into the lives of the patients and their families teach us about their vulnerabilities such as the hospital patient who is not able to speak because they are too sick to advocate for themselves or the vulnerable homebound elderly because they have no means of transportation or too weak or frail to travel. 

We are a part of the greater purpose of 13 million nurses in the world. We are all called to address:

? Healthcare Disparities 

? Healthcare practices by translating research and generating policies

Our call to action is demonstrated by:

? actively participating and collaborating with colleagues worldwide

? being culturally competent

? being self-reflective

? avoiding assumptions and stereotypes

? facilitating empathy

? seeking innovative solutions to shared health challenges

The worldwide call to action for Nursing and Nurses is this: One World, One Health. We are interconnected and, as Nurses, we are in a unique position to help address disparities in healthcare to attain health for all people around the world. We need to increase our visibility in shaping local and international practice and policy. Until we start to take care of each other all over the world, we will continue to have societal symptoms that manifest in bullying, homelessness, school shootings, or worse, terrorism.

In this way graduates, the struggles and hardships, the hopes and ambitions, the cost, time and resources, the toll on our families and friends who have supported us along the way will all be for a greater purpose bigger than ourselves. 

To our mentors, faculty, staff, and administrators, we thank you for pushing us to be better versions of ourselves and for pulling us back on track guiding us toward our goals. As we proceed on in our careers, we will express our gratitude by honoring our faculty’s work which will then be reflected in our work and future endeavors. After all, as Seneca said, "Non scholae, sed vitae discimus" (We learn not for school, but for life).

(Excerpts from the keynote address of Dr. Ron Billano Ordona, DNP to the 2018 graduating class of Boise State University School of Nursing).