Jan Stewart Memorial Wellness Lecture - 2015

My resilience keynote to the Nurse Anesthesia Annual Conference on Sunday started with a story.  I sat next to a soldier on my flight to Salt Lake City, who after takeoff pulled out his phone and started watching a home video.  It included scenes of saying good-bye to his family, arriving in a war-torn land, settling into the barracks, and then short segments of missions. 

The mission segments included travel along dusty roads, setting up his sniper rifle, and a jumbled mission where things go bad.  For two hours, he played the video repeatedly, always shutting the phone when he got to the jumbled mission.  Finally, he put his phone away and just cried.    

I felt his pain and told my audience of nurse anesthetist they knew his pain, for as pilots of the OR, they also face unavoidable stress, and are forced to make instant decision that affect the lives of others.  Many of us face unavoidable stress and challenging journeys, but they are our journeys and our futures to energize.  Daily resilient practices serve as the fuel for our life energy.