Thank you Senator.

I was a paramedic and an ER nurse. Therefore, many of the folks who needed my care ended up in that predicament by doing irresponsible acts. Any medic or nurse who says they have never engaged in risky behavior should retire.

I never believed it was my place to decide who was being truthful. Nor did I ever see it as my role to determine whether someone was deserving of care.

I am committed to being a voice in my beloved professions, nursing and paramedicine, to remind everyone why they do the job they do.

I am a part of several private nursing forums with millions of nurses commenting. They largely despise anyone in pain. Moreover, they boast in words and on t-shirts about how much satisfaction they receive from withholding medications and watching people suffer.

Over the last 8 years I have seen a dramatic shift in what I was raised to believe, trained to understand, and devoted myself in practice to treat. The outright hatred of anyone who appears to be in pain is deplorable.

For chronic pain there needs to be an identifying term which alerts clinicians that this class of patients are different.

The term “pain” might be better served for acute pain as it is an opioid-discriminatory word.

Public servants must be able to be malleable and go with the flow. Our communities depend on this when they show up with outside the box scenarios.

She was overwhelming grateful while in her deepest grief. The experience further rooted in my mind how important public service is.

We worked on the woman’s dog for 20 minutes before breaking the news that her dog would not survive.

We performed laryngoscopy and found an airway obstruction and removed it. We then placed a tracheal tube and ventilated the canine. We placed the dog on the cardiac monitor, did chest compresses, and defibrillated her.

He reminded me through his stories how sometimes you just have to decide, “am I going to live or die today, and take action.” I always feel empowered and less apt to complain when I spend time with veterans.🇺🇸🫡