I have become a successful, sought-after Director of Nursing, currently specializing in interim roles. I have reached a point in my career where I can choose what I want to do and where I want to go, and I have literally been booked back-to-back assignments where agencies and organizations beg me to stay on permanently. But, it hasn’t always been this way. Do you want to know how I went from rock bottom, hopeless, desperate, and almost quitting nursing altogether to where I am today?

I started my nursing career in 1984. I always knew I wanted to serve in long-term care. I began as a CNA, then, after getting my nursing degree, grew into a charge nurse role. But I had my eye on the “prize;” I wanted to be a director of nursing one day. Soon enough, I was asked to serve as an acting DON in a facility where I was working as a charge nurse and then accepted the DON position.

I served my heart out, going non-stop at breakneck speed and doing what I thought was right. I experienced endless days, and endless shifts, and sacrificed my family in my attempt to become a successful DON. I got to the point where I was crying myself to sleep- what little sleep I could get. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t focus, I missed out on all family functions, and almost lost my family. I was a complete wreck and the most miserable and depressed I had ever been in my life. You see, I had nobody to teach, train, or mentor me.

Eventually, I was fired. I had no idea what I was doing and failed miserably. I had been thrown to the wolves without any hope of succeeding and then fired when I failed. This experience devastated me, and I got out of LTC for a while. But LTC had captured my heart and got under my skin, and after a hiatus and taking a position in acute care, I returned to the LTC leadership arena.

What I learned from this experience is that there are scores of nurses out there who have been in precisely the same spot; accepting leadership positions and not getting the training and knowledge they need to be successful. When this revelation hit me, I knew what I needed to do, and my mission became to create a way to provide others with the knowledge and wisdom they need to avoid the mistakes I made.

Today, I have my eye on a new prize: to help others become the revered leaders they are meant to be and achieve massive success in their management roles, minus the getting fired part.