The Silent Anxiety Behind the Scrub Nurse Mask
My experience with anxiety didn’t begin all at once. It slipped into my life without a sound. In the beginning, it was simply stress. Lengthy shifts. Living far from home. Adapting to an unfamiliar country. Getting used to different ways of working. Striving to prove myself each day.
A Boundary I’m Learning to Set as a Nurse
There was a time when I thought being a good nurse meant always saying yes. Yes to helping a colleague. Yes to covering a shift. Yes to staying a little longer. Yes to being available whenever someone needed something. After all, nursing is a profession built on caring for others.…
Emotional Grounding: How I Return to Myself in Scrubs and Silence
Feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or disconnected? This post explores emotional grounding—a gentle, empowering way to return to yourself in the midst of chaos. Whether you’re a nurse, creative, or simply tired of rushing, these raw reflections and simple practices will help you breathe deeper and show up with quiet strength.
A journal in progress
Ordinary days, written down.
One ofw nurses , a life full of unknown and the parts of the week worth keeping. Written slowly, mostly at the place we can find comfort
Written by Kristel RN since 2001
What to expect from our website & blog
entries since 2001, most of them short
Nothing here is sponsored and nothing is a system. It is an ofw nurse writing down the weekday hours before they go, one day at a time.
Nurse Diary
Days that are meant to be familiar yet becomes unknown. Walks that were meant to be short, and the long argument about whether it counts or not.
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What actually heal and make you grow
The experiences that made on repeat will help you learn and as you learn it will also help you grown and become someone
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Slow trips
One bag, low expectations, and somewhere within a tank of fuel. The trips are small and the write-ups are honest about the parts that went wrong.
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It all happens at
the unexpected moment
Lessons in the morning, working in the afternoon, letters to myself when the day is finished. Most of what ends up on this blog started at the same table, and the entries read like it.
Days out, kept small on purpose
We stopped planning grand outings. Now it is one flask, one field or one stretch of coast, and home.Those days fill more of the archive than anything else. We tried to balance the life we have and the work.
“I came for the notes and stayed for the story. It is the only blog I still read slowly, the way you read a letter.”
Jane
Reader since 2021
The Sunday letter
One short email at the end of each week. What got written, what got eaten, and a photograph that did not make it onto the blog.
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Read the archive
Six years of ordinary days, sorted by stories. Start anywhere; the entries are short and nothing needs to be read in order.
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Say hello
Notes from readers get answered slowly but gladly. Tell me about your week.