Having support when you are a nurse is critical to your career. From mentoring in nursing school to preceptoring when starting a new position, an experienced and positive nurse by your side can ensure your professional success. Outside of work, having friends and family that are there for you (even if they do not completely understand the stress of the job) can make a difference on those hard days giving you that much needed mental boost when things become overwhelming. It is a wonderful thing if you can find friends who are nurses outside of work, as they get the job, the stress, and the bizarre hours by which you lead your life. I am fortunate to have several friends who are nurses, not only those I made in nursing school but others I connected with in New Mexico and beyond. Nurse friends provide wonderful sounding boards, offer great perspectives from specialties different from your own, and get that crazy sense of humor you’ve developed over hours spent in not-so-normal situations. I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by one of these fantastic nurse friends, Keith Carlson. I met Nurse Keith briefly many years ago in Santa Fe and fate kept […]