Nursing Profiles

Linda M.

Salinas, CA
RN, CCRN

I have always wanted to be a critical care nurse. In June, 1991, I graduated from nursing school and started work in the Intensive Care Unit. I have had some of the most incredible life-changing experiences in the ICU. I have been privileged to share in some very personal and private moments in a patient's life and death. I have worked tirelessly to keep a dying patient alive so that his family can say goodbye. A true patient advocate, I have battled both physicians and families of patients to ensure that a patient's wishes were respected. When you reach deep within the depths of your soul and give all that you have to being caring, compassionate, understanding, supportive, non-judgmental, as well as intelligent, trustworthy, and sincere, and the patient or a member of her family takes your hand, looks deeply at you, and says a simple "thank you," you know that you have done something special. I live to give. I want nothing in return other than knowing that someone's life has been made better because of me.

Now, nursing has opened new doors for me. Five years ago, after I decided to get my weight under control for good, I began to teach aerobics classes to stay active. I then became certified through ACE (American Council on Exercise), teaching lecture classes on weight management and general health and fitness topics. I have since obtained other national certifications, including ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). I now have the fortune of combining both my passions--nursing and fitness. I am a credible professional, because I model the behavior. I am now working with the hospital's administration to develop a corporate and community fitness program, and I am also being pursued to do other health and fitness lectures. This is just one avenue that nursing has provided me.

I am so proud to be a nurse.