 I had the epiphany that my health has been and always will be in my hands. This realization brought me to an understanding that no amount of support from the outside will allow me to change the way I need to to become healthy and energetic. There is no one but myself how is there to inspire me. I do need role models and mentors of which I do have some of the former and have yet to find the latter.
I bring this up because I have the opportunity to work this week with a young lady who had her child’s life disrupted and she needed a little support to do what she already know needed to be done but was not sure how to best achieve her goal of her child sleeping through the night. We has two lovely talks about what was going on and I made some suggestion of what might work for her child in changing her disrupted sleep routine. She did start with some of my ideas and the child showed improvement and I gave her a couple more suggestions I have hoped has helped. The take away is that she is a very dedicated mother. That we do not have mentors and support systems in place anymore to help young mothers, and that I can think of nothing better than to share my knowledge with this young woman in helping her to get a good night sleep. In my case I am looking for the weight loss mentor. I have role models and the one who currently I can see as where I want to be is Mark Bittman. His idea that we do not eat enough who food, fruits and veggies is true. He believes you need to simply make the decision to be healthy and that the goal is not weight loss but to be healthy. I also read a great deal from Jamie Wicks of Peertrainer.com and JJ Virgin. He devotion to her family is amazing. So what does this have to do with sleep? Well I had the opportunity to mentor and truly enjoy it but a great mentor will have their own mentor to move forward on their own issues. I do have a spititual and business mentor named Dwight Bain who has changed my life but I believe I need a person who can mentor me to become the body I know I should have. Now I want to offer to mentor you of you feel the need to change a small part of your life. I will help those who want to sleep better, help their children sleep better or who want to know how to blog. I have received so much from you my followers I want to give it back while I search for my new mentor. I received an E-mail from the National Association of Respiratory Therapists the other day saying congratulations on the anniversary of you credentials. It made me thing how long I have been around the field of respiratory and sleep and what changes have I seen. It also allowed me to draw several parallels from the two fields.
When I went to school in Paramus NJ back in the 1980’s Respiratory therapy still had many OJTs in the field. They did not have licensure. They had many school with certificate programs rather than AAS degrees and there were only a handful of BS degrees in the country. It was a young field with a great deal of potential and was finding its way in the healthcare arena. I was truly lucky I had the best instructors who allowed me to see a great future in the field and drove me to be the best therapist I could be. They encouraged the whole class to take not just our CRTT exam but to take our RRT as soon as we were eligible. They taught us not just the minimum we needed to pass the exams but also those skills we would need to grow with the field. It was truly a program ahead of its time. When I look at where many of my classmates are I see several who have run departments and gone into management and I believe there are a teacher or two from then as well. When I look at the field of sleep which I have been in for 10+ years ( I know where does the time go) I see so many parallels and I am excited about its future because I see so many great people stepping up to the plate and leading. I see programs starting to develop across the country. I have even had a hand in one. I see people taking on leadership roles and state societies emerging and helping to develop licensure laws. I even see a future where sleep will need its own degree program in order to keep up with the field as a while. That is if we can stop the infighting and focus on the future instead of who is right and who is wrong. We need to take that leadership on ourselves instead of letting other people take it over. What do I see has happened to me and my job since 1987 when I graduated my Respiratory program, I see a world where we have changed how patients are treated when it comes to breathing disorders. I see a world where care has more scientific study than ever before. I see a great deal of potential. |
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