Michele Legate:
CLASS OF 1965
Monticello High SchoolClass of 1965
Monticello, IA
Michele's Story
I think I was programmed to be a nurse from the day I was born. As the oldest girl in a family of 9 children, Iâm sure someone was always bleeding. My mother, however, could not stand the sight of blood so she would say: âYou go in there and I will tell you what to do.â So I went.
When I was 16, I started my nursing career at John McDonald Hospital. It was the beginning of the most rewarding career I ever could have chosen.
After high school graduation, I went to St. Louis, Mo to study nursing. At the City Hospital School of Nursing, I got a look at the cold hard life of the world. It was the mid 60âs and race relations was the hottest topic. There were race riots in St. Louis which I did not understand. I worked in the ER at the hospital and saw firsthand the trauma of riots. Growing up in Iowa, it never occurred to me that people were not equals so this demand for equality was so strange. As I garnered more experience with life, I discovered life can be very unfair. So I set my cap to do what little I could to make a difference. But I learned from my patients the value of life.
Being a nurse has made me see how important it is to take ...Expand for more
care of yourself. End stage cancer, COPD, and CHF are not pretty. Neither is end stage renal failure, colostomies and cirrhosis.
My patients taught me many things. They taught me that no matter how difficult things are they can always get worse. They taught me that helping someone through a difficult time has great rewards. Being a nurse has taught me that humor can be used to diffuse most tense situations. It has taught me how to be a more compassionate, more caring person. It has also taught me to set boundaries and to leave work at work. I have learned what my own personal signs and symptoms of burnout are and I do something about it before I have a complete meltdown.
I have had many opportunities in my chosen field. I have climbed the career ladder and have been to the top. Which is a very lonely place. I have done ER nursing, ICU, Recovery Room and Out Patient surgery nursing. All have been very rewarding experiences.
Although at times I dream of having a different type of career, I know that I would never be satisfied doing anything other than nursing. I have learned that even when I am worn out, tired and frustrated, nursing is the job for me.
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