As Hurricane Harvey, Irma, and Maria have passed and we have begun restoring our states and repairing the damage left by these destructive natural disasters, I must extend a huge thanks to all those who have been protecting and serving our people in every stage of this process: before, during, and after the hurricanes.

A few week have passed since Irma swept through the Caribbean and across Florida, many were called to serve their time and skill, especially law enforcement and healthcare professionals.

That being said, I want to extend a huge thank you to my fellow nurses around the state who spent hurricane Irma weekend making sacrifices for others. I became a nurse in march but I don't think it was until I was stuck in my hospital working along side my fellow nurses for 3 days straight that I truly realized everything that being a nurse encompasses.

Choosing to be a nurse means making sacrifices all the time. We miss out on a lot of important moments in the lives of those important to us just to make sure our patients and families are taken care of. We miss holidays and weekends when our friends and families are off, more often than not. We miss birthdays, celebrations, parties, weddings, graduations. Those were all evident when we decided to become bedside nurses. But the one thing that slipped through the cracks because it does not happen too often was sacrificing the ability to keep our families safe and be with them in the scary times.

Having to leave our families as we reported to work through the hurricane was a difficult task, a completely different part of nursing that we do not think about very often. Although it was hard and emotionally taxing to leave our families and constantly worry about them while camping out in the hospital, it was an honor to serve our patients and their families. We created bonds with our patients and our fellow nurses that we otherwise would not have.

Even until about last week, we were still making sacrifices to get back on track after the hurricane and working almost double or even more than double the hours than normal. Nursing is a difficult profession. It challenges you physically and emotionally and you get a unique look into and role in the lives of patients and their families.

This many be the first time that some of us nurses in florida have been called into the hospital to serve during a disaster and it probably won't be the last. So thank you to all the nurses around the world who have previously or in the future sacrifice taking care of themselves and their families, to protect their patients. It takes a special kind of heart, body, mind, and soul to do what we do. So, be proud of our profession and continue to serve!