Like a small boat on the ocean, sending big waves into motion. Like how a single word can make a heart open... I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion. And all those things I didn't say, wrecking balls inside my brain- I will scream them loud tonight... Can you hear my voice this time?

One of the greatest joys in my life has been my career as a nurse. I have done a lot over the last several years... I started out as a Tech in the ED, and then after graduating nursing school I worked on a renal/endocrine unit, then back to the ED, then moved into nursing management, and then on to Labor & Delivery as a staff nurse, and then back to the ED. Well, the time has come for me to move on again...

I will be leaving bedside nursing for something completely new and different...and I'm really, really excited about it!

As a nurse, I have always been passionate about pain control. Since I began my nursing career 10 years ago, there has been quite the shift when it comes to patients and their pain. When I started out, the notion was to 'manage the patients pain'- our goal was not necessarily to make them pain free, but to get the pain to a manageable level. As time has gone on, I have noticed that ANY pain at all, tends to be considered 'too much' and we as health care providers must work to not only reduce but eliminate the patients pain. Thusly, this has also become an expectation from our patients... they want the pain gone... and they want it gone now.

Since beginning my career, I have seen a tremendous increase in the utilization of opioid (some know this as narcotic) pain medication... Understandably, patients have also come to expect opioids/narcotics as first line treatment.

Due to some very personal reasons, I have become very passionate about the use (and overuse) of opioid pain medication.

Over 23 million Americans struggle with substance abuse problems... Since 2001, there has been over a 3-fold increase in the number of deaths from opioid overdoses (http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates). 3 FOLD?! That's crazy.

And, heroin overdoses have gone up 5 fold since 2001!! Many don't know that opioid medications are a gateway drug for heroin. The street value of opioid pills/patches is very expensive... Heroin on the other hand, is very cheap... and gives the user the same effect. A great book was published in April of this year, called Dreamland, (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402505) and it details more of the heroin epidemic, and how it has spread so rapidly.

Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than traffic accidents (http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/28/410306003/drug-addiction-on-the-rise-cropping-up-as-campaign-trail-issue). That is absolutely heartbreaking.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Well, I am leaving bedside nursing to go fight the war on opioids. Well, sort of...

I will be working for a company that looks to manage post-surgical pain through non-opiate means. Through a relatively simple device, they manage pain by providing medication directly to the site, rather than systemically... with an end goal of reducing or eliminating a patients need for opioids. I.love.this.

As bittersweet as it is for me to be leaving the Mount, and all of my friends there... I feel that this is the right move for me. I will miss you all! But this isn't goodbye- more like see you later!