The Ladder

The tables have turned and I suddenly became the mentor.

I spend so much of my time, soaking up others' experiences and advice. When I was asked to let a grad student from the U of Illinois shadow me, I was a bit taken aback. What do I possibly have to teach her?

She looked to me as the seasoned executive (yeah, I about snorted my coffee when I heard that) and had a lot of questions about what she should take in school and how one breaks into administration. Everyone's out for a job these days…but one of the huge lessons I've learned is that women need to pull each other up. That was my complaint of the few scant female execs I met before Nurse Jackie. They were too worried about retaining their own positions that they never made time to mentor other women. They didn't want to lose their jobs. They just didn't make it a priority. Nurse Jackie is the first female exec to pull me up, to teach me the ropes, and to baptize me with administrative lava. You can only learn so much by studying and talking about it. Eventually, you have to jump in and JUST DO IT.

EVOO challenged me to become like Nurse Jackie. He encouraged me to "pass it on" and to mentor as many young women as I can. While I've just started climbing the ladder (and the top of the ladder disappears into the clouds while I’m about 3 feet off the ground), these women are still standing on the ground, not sure which ladder to start climbing. They're not sure if the rungs are greased or if women are even allowed on the first rung.

So I gratefully accepted the student who wanted to shadow me. I toured her around the hospital, introducing her to all the nurse managers, RN's, techs, and even a few of the housekeeping staff. By doing that, it raised my own confidence that I can now (comfortably) go to any nursing unit and know most of the folks by name. I can walk into the ER and ignore the feelings of faintness I feel when I see a gunshot victim who took a bullet to his chest. I can go up into surgery and know which areas require scrub and which do not. The student had the Deer in Headlights expression but I'm starting to see that it's my job to help other women wipe the Deer off of their faces!