Counting Your Blessings

A perhaps idealized past: ‘Home for Thanksgiving,’ Currier and Ives lithograph/Wikimedia Commons

At the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., it’s customary to take some time to reflect on our good fortune—to give thanks for what we have. For many of us, it means being thankful for family and good health. But what about all the other people who may make a difference in how we live our lives, who make the world in which we live better or in some indirect way have had an impact on what we do, how we do it, how we feel about life or our work?

Here are some folks I’d like to thank:

• The incredibly talented team here at AJN who are committed to fulfilling AJN’s mission to provide accurate, evidence-based content with high journalistic standards, and the publishing team that provides the resources it takes to deliver on our mission.
• AJN’s editorial boards, contributing editors, and peer reviewers, who contribute their expertise and wisdom to keep AJN on track.
• Organizations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, Johnson & Johnson, the Jonas Foundation, the John Hartford Foundation, the Macy Foundation, and others who believe in the value of nursing and provide support to further the profession.
• Carolyn Jones, the photographer and filmmaker, for her wonderful book and film project, The American Nurse, which portrays the incredible work of nurses across settings and makes it visible to the public.
• Brave people like nurses Kaci Hickox and Debbi Wilson and physician Craig Spencer and their colleagues at Doctors without Borders/MSF and at other relief agencies who volunteer (often with considerable risk to themselves) to provide care and compassion to those who need it (read about Wilson’s experience in a Liberian Ebola-treatment center in her recent blog post).
• Nurses who make the hard decisions and are examples to us all, like the U.S. Navy nurse who has refused to force-feed detainees at Guantanamo Bay because it violates professional ethics.
• Nursing faculty, who pursue teaching careers because they are committed to educating the next generation of nurses.
• Nurses who stand up for colleagues, new and old, and work to promote teamwork and unity in the workplace.
• And the nurses who, every day, show up and do whatever it takes to meet the needs of the patients in their care.