My mother is a nurse. She would always talk about her job and how much she enjoyed it. Good recommendation mom! My grandmother was also a nurse- she’s in a retirement home now. Then my older sister went to school to become a nurse and my grandpa was an anesthesiologist -just a lot of people in the health care field from my family! My mother always said, “Number 1- it’s job stability, number 2- it is my calling”. She always felt as though she was helping people. It was her purpose in life and always felt fulfilled. Anytime she was talking about nursing to me, she was happy. And then my sister went into nursing- she is two years older than me. I had an idea of what nursing school would be like and my sister just loved it. Then I just decided nursing was the route I was going to take! My dad- he was a teacher, and then a Principal. He was in education, but I just felt like nursing was more up my alley.
Tori graduated in 2016, and since graduation she has worked in several different areas of nursing: Critical Care, Neurology, Emergency, Corrections, Cardiology and Harm Reduction.
I had a picture in my mind that I would be an emergency nurse. I was totally convinced because my mom was an emerge and ICU nurse for years. She would have very fascinating things to talk about all the time. And so I always had a picture of a critical care nurse- that was my vision. That is why I tried neurology because I wanted to get some floor experience versus being a new grad and going right into ICU. I figured from ICU, I would then go to emerge and if I didn’t love it, then I didn’t really know what I would do because that had been my goal.
“But really the beautiful thing about nursing is that you can explore all these different areas and find out what your passion is.”
I had no idea I would end up totally passionate and in my element working in Harm Reduction. I had zero clue, no idea!
How have things been different for you working through a pandemic?
When we were totally shutdown, my mental health did deteriorate – gyms were closed – even just not being able to go to a restaurant where I would typically see my friends for a social drink, made it difficult. And then there were the restrictions at work too. My main outlet outside of work is being able to have my physical exercise and during the winter that’s so hard because I’m not really a winter runner, so I can’t just like pop outside and go for a run. I was also taking on more emotional stress from work. So I needed those releases I would normally get from physical exercise…and not getting them made me feel unbalanced.
Tori talks about how she brightens up her life outside of nursing
I rely heavily on my animals. My mental health, I think has been okay because of my animals and my support system. You know, my animals are great because I can just go home and they comfort me without having to know what’s happened. I can just go home and if I’m feeling blue, they’re not going to ask me why- they’re not going to poke and prod and whatever… I can just lay there and have my animals hanging out with me, I volunteer at one of the rescues here as well, and I help walk and feed them. I am now on my second foster dog.
Tori offers her thoughts to nursing students
1. Prioritize having a strong network of friends and family, as having that support is crucial
2. Always lead with love and kindness with everything you do, and the rest will fall into place.
3. Read your books and ask lots of questions!
