About 30 years ago, I started my nursing career, working in the "recovery room" of a small-town community hospital. I learned many lessons there-how to manage acute pain, assess rapidly and critically, provide compassion to frightened patients and families, and prioritize patient needs. Unfortunately, like the vast majority of nurses in practice in the 1970s, what I did not learn was how to prioritize and meet my own needs.

I could have been the poster nurse for "life without a life." As a young mother, I missed many of my children's plays, school outings and sports events. I was caring for a patient when my son ran through a glass door. I felt that I had to single-handedly keep up with the demands of the unit, patients, surgeons, and families, regardless of the personal costs.

If I had to do it all over again, I would-I cannot imagine my life without the excitement and satisfaction of perianesthesia nursing. I know of no better reward than making the surgical process a little less frightening for patients and their families and no greater professional satisfaction than seeing patients safely through the initial phase of treatment to recovery, all in one day.

But I would do it differently. I would find ways to make more time for a personal life. Family, church, social outlets, sports, civic work, or just time alone are interests and needs that cannot go unmet without a toll.

One thing I would do is build, along with my colleagues, a better support network. We nurses need to help one another have a personal life. We need to offer assistance even when our colleagues don't ask for it. "Why don't you run out to the pharmacy at lunch-I'll listen for any calls?" and "I can work Wednesday if you need it off" are the kinds of words that prop up the spirit.

I now understand that I need to elevate my personal goals to the same status as my professional ones. I am inspired by the students at the RN to BSN program at Norwich University in Northfield, Vt. They sign ‘self-care contracts' that include both self-assessment and goal setting to develop methods and attitudes that promote self-care. Meeting the goals-which might include joining a sports team, planning a weekly family outing, or making time to prepare a healthy meal every day-earns students points toward course grades. The students report that the activities help them balance their personal and professional lives. I'll bet that when these students graduate, they will continue to promote their own self-care as well as that of co-workers.

As a manager, I now work to promote a climate of concern for the well-being of all staff members-support, not guilt, for requested time off, encouragement of health-related activities, and a positive emotional climate with concern for both patients and staff.

I have a message for the next generation of nurses. Cherish your opportunity to be the provider for sick and hurting people. But remember to take care of yourselves and your peers along the way.

Nancy Burden, RN, is the director of the Morton Plant Mease Outpatient Surgery Centers in the west central Florida area. She is also the author of Ambulatory Surgical Nursing and editor of Peri-Anesthesia and Ambulatory Surgical Nursing Update.