Brenda Jeam IEN Nursing Award

My name is Karla Mae Thorsen, I am an International Educated Nurse from the Philippines. I grew up in a small island that is far from the city. Our health care system back home was challenging because we have to travel 3 hours by boat to get into a hospital aside from that it is hard to avail the health services specially for the less fortunate people. When it comes to technology, we are behind, there are only very few hospitals that has technical advancement and only fortunate people can afford and this is only available in the big cities. Because of this, nurses and other health care providers has to be more resourceful in providing the best quality of life to the patients in our own ways. When I was doing my nursing school back home, I saw how devastating to be in a health care field but instead of choosing different career it gave me more reason to continue to be a nurse. It is natural to myself that I always help people in need. My mom always tells me that I am soft hearted, because even I don’t know the person, I always offer to help. I choose to become a nurse because it is so rewarding when I see my patients smiles and feeling better after the sickest or weakest time of their lives. At the end of the day after a chaotic busy shift, I am happy because I know that I have helped someone and made a difference in their lives. I always put in my mind that as nurses, I am taking care of human being that needed a tender loving care with act of kindness and compassion.