NurseWeek News

Holiday Blend
Respect the past, appreciate the present, forge new traditions for the future

By Carol Bradley, MSN, RN, California Editor
December 16, 2002

I had the opportunity to share several of my favorite holiday chores with my oldest daughter this week: wrapping and boxing presents to send off to our long-distance family members and letting her in on my secret source for handmade candy canes that have made a regular appearance in her stocking since she was little. Until now, no one in my family knew where Santa found these wonderful candy canes.

As my children get older, the holidays take on a different feel. There are now acknowledgements and appreciation of our family's own traditions of the season. These are the little things that my daughters recognize as our own family traditions, a blend of those holiday practices from my husband's family as well as my own.

Our Christmas breakfast is a good example: saffron bread from my husband's family served with an egg and sausage casserole from my family. My daughters have had the same Christmas breakfast since they were little and, once again, are already looking forward to it.

Enduring traditions are important; they keep us connected in interesting ways. There is much in nursing that speaks to one's heart in the same way-long-held values and traditions of a profession that, even today, hold an emotional importance to all nurses and serve as the glue that keeps our profession together.

Recognizing and preserving those traditions of nursing that should endure and survive is as important as identifying, embracing and integrating the new.

I am not talking about the outmoded rituals that have long been proved ineffective, but those things that we know, ultimately, do make a difference and hold meaning to us as nurses.

If you sit back and objectively assess what is happening in nursing right now, the challenge seems to be in sorting out what is important about the past, then determining how best to blend it with the present for the benefit of nursing in the future.

If we can find a way to do this successfully, we can create an even stronger profession for the future-something better than the nursing world we know today. A profession in concert with and responsive to the needs and expectations of patients. A profession that is cohesive and strong, and competitive with the myriad other career alternatives available to our children today.

As you look to the new year, be true to those important traditional values of nursing, but be willing to embrace the best of what is offered today with vigor, enthusiasm and equal commitment. The future is ours to create.

May you and your family have a joyful holiday and peaceful new year.

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