The KInd Life Community Forum

I am an RN in a small town in Indiana. I have been vegetarian for 2 years, and am a newbie vegan for a couple of months now (have never felt better in my life!).
My problem is now that I so vibrantly see the connection between diet and illness, I despise what I do. Every day I go into work, push a cup full of pills at my patients, watch them undergo painful procedures, ect....and then place a meal tray in front of them that now seems lethal to me. (I.E. - watching a post-op open heart patient nosh on two double cheeseburgers as his first meal after surgery. Sigh.) When I open my mouth to educate my patients, I am either chastized by the patient, their families, my coworkers, or the physicians I work with. It's such a battle! I'm beginning to be known as 'that crazy little hippie nurse'.

So I need a little advice. I'm new to this lifestyle, and while I LOVE it, I'm not quite sure how to spread it to my career. I feel so hypocritical at work right now. What kind of job opportunities are available? Should I consider going back to school?

I just saw Precious last night. There was a scene where handsome Nurse Aid is sitting eating a fruit cup and all the girls are talking about how they LOVE McDonalds. Gross! I'm a non-practicing RN, I think the hardest job ever. I've always felt a very important nursing characteristic was not judging. So Hard. But what can I say, I left! I work in drug safety now. What's crazy is that this isn't even hippy, it is scientifically a super healthy way to eat and heal your body, and I hope people continue to grasp onto that. Be strong! Re-label yourself as best nurse for not wanting patients to eat $hit!

not a nurse, but an acupuncturist on faculty at an acupuncture college in nyc - and I know that the college is starting a holistic nursing program in the fall or winter - I don't know much about it, but I believe its additional courses for people who are already qualified nurses. I found an article about the specialty here:http://spa-wellness.spabeautyschools.com/content/article/holistic-nursing-programs-holistic-nursing-degrees/8104/as of right now, its a certificate program, one would think that in the (hopefully near!) future this would become more and more popular.I can't imagine what you guys go through knowing what you do about helath/diet and seeing it all disregarded in the settings you work in - I truly believe that this will become more in demand, and that you are on the forefront of it all - meaning a lot of frustration, but also, a lot of opportunity to perhaps create/explore other ways of doing what you do in different settings.

Thanks all. Sherry, that sounds awesome...unfortunately I can't relocate my family to sunny Cali! I had been looking into dietetics, but EVERYTHING is based on the current food pyramid. How do you counsel someone in something you view as completely false? Ugh. I feel like I've hit a pivotal moment in my life, and boy am I pivoting. I'm just going to take this one day at a time - I'm sure it will lead me somewhere positive and amazing! In the mean time, all I can do is spread what I know, live what I believe and enjoy each day the best that I can ;)

p.s. - major victory in my house tonight, another vegan meal that the husband and young kiddos devoured. Score one for mom!

Julia, my son had open heart surgery last summer, and that was one of the things that struck me was the food available at the hospital - stuff like fried chicken, burgers, chicken fried steak - I was amazed that they would feed this stuff to kids who had just undergone some kind of major procedure like that! Fortunately, my in-laws were here to help us, so we had them run to Whole Foods and bring us food while we were there. I have no idea how hospitals determine what food to put on their menus, but there really needs to be some kind of hospital food revolution!

I honestly think there's a growing movement even in the medical profession though toward veganism. Two of our doctors are MDs who promote nutrition as prevention - one of whom is our pediatrician. Maybe there's a practice like that near you where your ideas would be better appreciated.