When I break it down and think of the core ideal of nursing, I think of always putting the patient first by doing what’s best for them at any given moment. A seemingly simple statement yet it is so complex because it encompasses the care for an entire human life. On any given day how I care for a patient could be anywhere from helping them to the bathroom to educating them on healthy living to even administering life-saving medicine. If I am lucky all three could happen in a shift. My inspiration has come from many different aspects of my life it seems I was bred for nursing by my constant drive for knowledge and my personal experience. I have always found myself asking why. “Why does this do that when I do this?” “Why does that do that?” I have found this mental merry-go-round especially helpful when it comes to the ever-changing components of the healthcare field. That is what drove me to nursing the idea of every day being different, facing a new challenge, and learning a new skill speaks to me on a personal level. I want to be challenged every day to work harder and think smarter for someone. In this quest for knowledge, I feel life can be the best lesson of all. Before I turned 18 I had seen more adversities than most see in a lifetime. All through my childhood, I helped take care of my almost completely bedridden father. I tended to his needs and saw when it was a good day or a bad day. I learned from a very young age how much a simple act can have on someone’s life every day while helping my dad. Next, I got my own dose when I had a major hip operation at 16 and saw how important it was to have someone else do for you when you can’t for yourself. Lastly, when my father died, I saw the mental toll it not only took on myself and my family, and how dynamic and vital the members of healthcare are for families like mine. In everything that has happened to me I have taken it as a learning experience and hope to grow and use this knowledge to help others. My nursing philosophy comes from my drive for understanding and my offbeat background. The more you experience as a nurse will only make you a better nurse. I hope to experience it all good or bad. I have been a nursing care assistant for almost three years at Duke and I have been working with float pool for the last year. I began on a general medicine floor that became a covid unit when the pandemic hit. I greatly appreciated the learning opportunities that gave me. I gained an unbelievable amount of knowledge working with covid patients it was one of the hardest things I have ever done yet the most rewarding. When I began nursing school, I wanted to broaden my experiences by working with float pool throughout the entire Duke hospital system. I thought this would help me not only become more well-rounded but also help select the area of nursing I wanted to continue to pursue when I graduate. In my time working with float pool, I have learned I can be a bigger help not having an individual specialty but being knowledgeable in all aspects of nursing so I can help anywhere that is needed. I hope to employ my past experiences while continuing in pursuit of knowledge while I care for each individual patient.