Share your story

The nursing shortage continues, and we are all feeling the pain of the shortage. Nurses are leaving the profession or retiring early. They are leaving bedside nursing and moving to less stressful jobs with more predictable hours. What does that mean for heart failure patients and heart failure nurses? It means we (the collective body of nurses who work in heart failure as bedside RN's, clinic RN's, Nurse practitioners, educators, researchers, and administrators) need to share out story. We need to share what drew us to the specialty of heart failure. Stories are powerful and sharing our stories with nurses who are deciding on a career path can make a huge difference. Think about what drew you to heart failure- and share that with nurses that are new to nursing. Yes, it's hard, yes it can be heart breaking, but it's also incredibly rewarding. The honor of taking care of patients with this disease should never been taken for granted. This population needs nurses now more than ever. The numbers of heart failure patients is growing at the same time the number of nurses is decreasing. Share your stories on the amazing moments you've had with your patients and families. Share the excitement you feel when new research on treatments is published that improves outcomes for this population. Share the heartache you feel when a long time patient passes away. Share the joy of telling a patient their Ejection fraction normalized with treatment. Share your story. The passion heart failure nurses have will capture the hearts of new nurses and we need them to be excited about caring for heart failure patients. We need them to see that working with heart failure patient encompasses all that nursing is…advocacy, education, nursing care of families and patients. It will be challenging and exciting and rewarding. Share your story!