The holiday season is a festive and frantic time for many. With so much that we have to, want to, or just think we should do, those same 24-hour days we normally try to get everything done in seem even shorter.
But this year, you can take a new approach with one question you can ask yourself in so many situations. This holiday season, use these five words – How much do I need? — every day and see the impact they have on saving you time, money, stress, and even a few pounds.
Here are a few ways to get you started with this question.
Manage the Holiday Budget
With your budget, asking “How much do I need?” seems pretty silly. Well, unlimited cash and time would be nice, of course, but the question begs you to reconsider how much you need to spend to feel like you are giving without breaking your own bank or your spirit. Limiting your budget often makes people very creative and that can free them to be more expressive and personal than any expensive gift card they could give. Make gifts like bath bombs or your best chocolate sauce. Sure they take time, but honestly by the time you get to a mall or a store, park, grab a coffee or a dinner, shop, wait in line, and get home, you’ll come out even.
Figure Out Your Holiday Eating Plan
Groaning buffet tables, holiday parties with fantastic food, and cookies that stretch from here to the moon tempt even those with the strongest willpower. Everything is delicious, you’re probably hungry from all the running around, and it makes you feel special to eat something you didn’t have to cook. But if you ask yourself, “How much do I need?” it frees you to enjoy everything in a way that makes you mindful of what you are eating. Do you really need a whole piece of chocolate madness cake or will half a piece satisfy your cravings? Will another plateful of turkey dinner fill your hunger or just stuff your stomach?
Map Out Fitness
“How much do I need?” also lets you go easy on yourself sometimes. While it might help you limit your food intake, it also works in reverse, too. Can’t fit in an hour on the treadmill? How much do you need? If any amount of activity is better than nothing (it is) then take a short stroll and feel how refreshed you are. Don’t have the energy to power through a whole yoga class? If you consider how much do you need right now, you might be okay with a few really deep stretches, some relaxing breathing, a handful of push ups and squats, and the reassurance that you will make time tomorrow.
Opting Out Is Not Being Lazy
How can the magic question help here? Well, how much do you need to make your schedule feel full (and you happy) and not crammed (and you crabby)? How many parties and events can you attend without feeling obligated, overtired, and over the whole season? Find your balance so you can go to the events that are especially meaningful, particularly fun, or involve people you love being around. Saying yes to some and no to others can help you figure out what you need to make the holiday magic present in your life and not just another thing to check off the list. If you can say no to an obligation (that awful neighbor’s overdone show of glitz) so that it gives you time to do something that fills your soul (serving dinner at a soup kitchen or visiting an elderly shut in with your kids), then the trade off is worth it.
Don’t Forget Sleep
Of course, we know this holiday season is short and sometimes you sacrifice sleep for fun. That’s fine, if it’s fine for you and your body. But, realistically, how much do you need? Will four days of staying up late take a toll on your mood, your productivity, and your peace of mind? Are you up late catching up on everything that isn’t getting done in the holiday rush? See where you can cut back. Have eggs, toast, and fruit for dinner – the family will adjust. Don’t worry if you only make one batch of your favorite holiday cookies or if you bring the easiest appetizer in the world to your neighbor’s party (for example, a block of cream cheese, a jar of pepper jelly, and crackers). Getting the rest you need makes the whole season brighter.
Is There Too Much or Not Enough Family Togetherness?
Some of the funniest movies are made about unhappy families at holiday time. If your family time looks like that, then it’s worthwhile to ask yourself how much family togetherness do you need? How much is really good for your soul? On the other hand, you might also crave more time with your family to make the holidays seem complete. If you feel you need more time with your family, see how you can make that happen. Even small ways to connect can make you feel closer, more involved, and more in the spirit of the season.
What are other holiday situations where you can use the question “How much do I need?”
I fondly remember sitting in the waiting room for a scholarship that was offered to African American students to be of use for academic endeavors. I was waiting to be interviewed. However, I remember not feeling nervous and feeling confident that I would be able to answer any questions they may have for me. This surprised me then and surprises me now as an adult. At the aforementioned time, I was only 17 years of age and a senior in high school. There was one question, though, that I did not anticipate as I sat in a room of nurse leaders.
They asked me, “As a young African American like yourself, what do you see as the barriers to your success?”
I just looked one of the interviewers square in the eye and stated, “There are no barriers, from my point of view.”
I’ll never forget the interviewers being so shell-shocked. I do not think they expected this answer.
I explained, “Barriers are what we perceive them to be. If I do not perceive any, they simply do not exist.”
Now, as an African American nurse who has attained her baccalaureate and master’s degrees and is currently working on her doctorate, I see the importance of this idea in my life. The brain can perceive many things, and they may not necessarily be real. This has been proven true again and again in the perception of illusions, or tricks of the eye. The same proves true in the outlook of minority nursing students today. Merriam Webster confirms that constructs are the things created by the mind or the product of ideology, history, or social circumstances. You must remember that barriers to success are simply constructs, only true if you choose to accept them into your reality. Such barriers may come in the form of racism, a challenging nursing course, financial troubles, or other adversities. There may be difficulties, but there are always ways to overcome these difficulties as one strives to complete an entry-level nursing program or pursue an advanced degree in nursing.
I was awarded that scholarship. And to think, it was attributed to a positive idea that my mind constructed. As a result of this positive idea, I was able to have a generous contribution made toward my baccalaureate degree. Yes, my positivity was a source of success and continues to propel me forward in this great profession. Do not let constructs of the mind hold you back in achieving your own elaborate dream of success.
I will never forget standing in a department store next to a woman who was quickly trying on one pair of shoes after another while talking on the phone. I couldn’t help but overhear her conversation with what could have only been her significant other. She was reassuring as she said she would be home fairly soon. She was just finishing up at work and would be leaving the office shortly.
I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. Who doesn’t try to steal a few minutes of “me” time whenever and wherever they get the chance?
Where can you steal some me time when you have a schedule that barely lets you breathe? This isn’t the me time we all crave – the hours-long lunches with friends or days at the spa. That is important but takes some real planning. This list holds ideas for a few ways to capture the true stolen moments that you can manage to sneak into your day every now and then.
Slow Time in the School Pick-Up Lanes These are the classic times for a 10-minute phone call with a friend, a close-your-eyes breather (with the car off, of course!), or to read the mail or flip through a magazine in peace.
Grocery Store Chaos Those long holiday lines are tiresome, but they do give you a chance to edit your phone messages, read a blog, check out a magazine, or debate new nail polish colors.
Shave Time Off Errands If you are squishing in all the extra holiday errands, try to be efficient and shave 5 minutes off each stop. You can land yourself 20 to 30 minutes at the shoe store, at a favorite park or scenic spot, a garden center, a coffee shop, or a corner in the book store.
Take Advantage of Traffic Seriously, traffic can be a bonus if you aren’t running late for something vitally important. Keep a special playlist set or a calming ocean music CD in the car for when you’re going nowhere on the roads. Tune into talk radio to catch up on the news or just turn off all extra noise and enjoy not having to listen to or talk to anyone.
Spend a Little Less Time in Bed It’s hard to drag yourself out of bed, but if you can manage it, you can have the quietest time of the day to yourself. If you are a night owl, stay up until after everyone has gone to bed and sit down to watch your favorite show.
Embrace Anything Canceled Was your meeting rescheduled? Did your doctor’s office have to cancel your appointment? Was the school’s booster’s club meeting called off? Capture that time for you. Sneak home if no one is there or run over to the drug store and check out all the new body lotions. Just do something you want to do, not that you have to do.
Stay at “Work” a Little LongerSo the woman trying on shoes was pretty smart. If you can, leave work on time and make a stop on the way home just for you. You won’t be terribly late getting home and those extra few minutes can act like a decompression time.
Getting time for yourself during the holidays is essential to keeping a good outlook on the season. You won’t feel as bogged down by your “have-to-do” list if you can cross a few things off your “want-to-do” list. Make time for some “me” time today.
When nurses think of going into pediatric nursing, they often think of working with a specific age in the wide range of newborn baby to 18-year-old young adult. But what many might not realize is how working with a child also includes working closely with a family as well. In fact, when pediatric nurses think of caring for a patient, they consider the care of the family as part of the whole child, says Shirley Wiggins, PhD, RN, president of the Society of Pediatric Nurses.
As families have evolved to range from the traditional family of a mom and dad with kids, today’s family structure takes on a whole new shape. It can include same gender parents, grandparents as primary caregivers, parents living together or apart, foster parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even close friends who comprise the family unit.
So while pediatric nurses tend to the needs of the child, they also remain mindful of the emotions and experiences of the child’s family. “Education is a critical point with families, and it’s what they need,” says Wiggins. But not all families are ready for specific information at the same time. A pediatric nurse’s job includes being able to read a family’s readiness. “What is the capacity of that child and that family both developmentally and at that time,” says Wiggins.
When families have information, they can help support the child even more, and pediatric nurses are there to help them through that process. “You see how powerful the family is in our society,” says Wiggins. “In difficult times, you see how amazing they are. They dig deep.”
Although Wiggins says many pediatric nurses come right from nursing school, there are many who choose the field during a mid-career change. Wiggins says it’s often the call of working with children and in partnership with families that draw nurses in. “Sometimes what drives it is they encounter a family and a child speaks to them,” she says.
Wiggins says no matter where you are coming from in your career, it helps to have an open mind when you think about how you would fit into a pediatric nursing position. “Be open to the that fact that each family is unique,” she says. “Be flexible to just listen.” Families and children often come as one unit, so pediatric nurses see the whole picture.
The origins of the 55,000 member Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina are unclear. Many think the Lumbee are descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Island “Lost Colonists” of 1587, the first permanent English settlers in North America. A new group of settlers arrived on Roanoke Island in 1590 to replenish supplies and grow the colony. However, when they arrived, the fort was deserted and all they found was the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. According to this theory, sometime between 1587 and 1590, the settlers moved to another island or mainland location called “Croatoan.” The idea continues that the English colonists settled among and intermarried with the friendly Croatan Indians, and by 1650 the tribe migrated to the area in and near present-day Robeson County, North Carolina. The ancestors of the Lumbee were mainly Cheraw and related Siouan-speaking Indians who have lived in the vicinity of Robeson County since the 1700s. The Lumbee have been recognized as a Native American tribe since 1885 by the state of North Carolina, although they have yet to receive federal recognition. They take their name from the Lumbee River, which winds its way through their ancestral lands.
For the first half of the twentieth century, North Carolina laws called for triple segregation—separate schools for African American, Lumbee, and white students, with African American and Lumbee schools far inferior in funding, equipment, and general support to white schools. Lumbee were also frequently discriminated against in employment, housing, recreation, and health until the 1960s. Despite these hardships, a few young Lumbee women were determined to become nurses. All of the early Lumbee nurses went out of state to receive their nursing education; a few returned to help their neighbors and families. Here are their stories.
THE EARLIEST KNOWN LUMBEE REGISTERED NURSES
Viola E. Lowry Armstrong is the first known Lumbee registered nurse. She was born on June 25, 1897 in the crossroads community of Elrod in Robeson County, North Carolina, to Henry H. and Julia Revels Lowry. Shortly after graduating from Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee in 1918, Armstrong enrolled in the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing (KGHSON). According to KGHSON historian Billie McNamara, Armstrong was the first Native American nurse to enroll at the school. She graduated in 1923 and soon married William Franklin Armstrong, a local businessman. The couple had a son in 1926 followed by a daughter two years later. The Armstrongs spent their lives in Knoxville where Nurse Armstrong managed family responsibilities along with a part-time, private duty nursing career until her retirement at age 75.
Two of Armstrong’s first cousins, sisters Lorraine C. LowryEvans and Lessie Lowry Blakeslee, followed Mrs. Armstrong into nursing. Evans was the sixth of eight children born to the Reverend Doctor Fuller and Jessie Mae Hatcher Lowry on January 22, 1916 in Robeson County, North Carolina. Shortly after graduating from the nursing program at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, she married a local man, John Robert Evans, in June, 1938. Her life was cut short when she died of breast cancer in 1957. Her Nashville death certificate lists her occupation as a registered nurse and her place of employment as Gordon Hospital.
Lessie Lowry Blakeslee was the third of eight children born to Reverend Doctor Fuller and Jessie Mae Hatcher Lowry in 1912. She graduated from Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing and later became a U.S. Army nurse. She lived in several parts of the country before dying in Nebraska in 1954.
Another early Lumbee registered nurse was Bertha Locklear Berkheimer. She was born on September 4, 1908 in Robeson County, North Carolina to Reverend Peppers Mahoney Locklear and Mary Catherine Hunt Locklear. After graduating from Pembroke High School she went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to pursue her nursing education. By 1940 she was living in Philadelphia, married to Jessie Berkheimer, was mother to a son and daughter, and was a nursing supervisor at the Philadelphia State [Psychiatric] Hospital. She lived in Philadelphia until her death in 1981.
Velma Mae Lowry Maynor: Community Health Nurse
The first Lumbee registered nurse to return to Robeson County after graduating from nursing school was Velma Mae Lowry Maynor. She was born on September 9, 1907 to Edmond and Sally Hatcher Lowry. After graduating from what is now the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC-P) with a teaching certificate, Maynor taught school for a few years in Robeson County. By the late 1920s, Maynor pursued her calling to become a nurse and entered the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing. After graduating in 1933, Maynor worked for four and a half years at the Philadelphia General Hospital as a medical floor supervisor.
The Great Depression of the 1930s led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish many new government programs, policies, and agencies to help the poor and unemployed across the country. These new initiatives were known collectively as the New Deal.
As part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration—and beginning in 1935, the Resettlement Administration—helped to establish homestead communities that encouraged landownership and, in many cases, fostered agricultural skills. In North Carolina, the resettlement projects were rural farming homesteads. The idea behind the homesteads was that the settlers would rehabilitate the land and learn valuable agricultural and subsistence skills (Tillery Farms historic marker).
Robeson County was selected as a site for a farming homestead project, called Pembroke Farms, specifically created for Lumbee people. Each family who lived at Pembroke Farms had a modest house and 11 acres of land. Once the farm was in working order, the homesteader could purchase the land through the federal government. Pembroke Farms had its own school, community center, and several staff on hand to assist with agricultural practices, homemaking skills, and health. The only full-time, permanent, Lumbee employed at Pembroke Farms was Mrs. Maynor, the nurse. According to Malinda Maynor Lowery, historian of the Lumbee people and author of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, “her duties centered on curbing the area’s malaria, tuberculosis, syphilis, and other diseases through treatment and education.”
Several articles in the local newspaper, The Robesonian, note Nurse Maynor’s activities during the four years she worked at Pembroke Farms (1939-1943). The first, on September 8, 1941, mentions that she is teaching a home nursing course at Pembroke State College (now UNC-P), a course she would repeatedly offer to the community during the WWII years. A month later, she judged several exhibits at the Pembroke Fair. The newspaper reports her extensive involvement with the 4-H club and her service on the Board of Directors of Odum Home, an orphanage for Indian children.
World War II brought an end to most New Deal programs, including Pembroke Farms. Many men were serving in the military and jobs were more plentiful. Nurse Maynor’s job at Pembroke Farms ended. She worked as a night nurse at the N.C. Cancer Center in nearby Lumberton from 1952 until 1966 when she became a school nurse for Robeson County. Again, The Robesonian often described her activities during the seven years she cared for the school children. Maynor and the other schools’ nurses screened children for vision, spinal, dental, and other common childhood health problems and made sure all the children received proper care. Maynor’s obituary states that she was also the first nurse to serve the Robeson County Department of Corrections. After a lifetime of caring for her community, Maynor died on November 18, 1997, at the age of 90.
Eva B. Sampson: Student Health/Infirmary Nurse
Another nurse who dedicated her life to her Robeson County community was Mrs. Eva Brewington Sampson, RN. She was born on July 31, 1932 to Clyde and Lillie Mae Brewington. She was one of the earliest nursing graduates from Southeastern Community College, earning her Associate Degree in Nursing in 1968. After working two years at Southeastern General Hospital, Sampson became the Director of Student Health Services at UNC-P. While working in the student health center she earned her bachelor’s degree majoring in psychology and sociology. During Sampson’s 25-year tenure at UNC-P, she was involved with the students and campus life. She served as an adviser to the Tri-Sigma Sorority and established the John W. (Ned) Sampson endowed scholarship, to assist deserving young athletes in paying for their schooling. Mrs. Sampson was also active in her profession and her community. She was an active member of the NC State Nurses Association, a Cub Scouts Den Mother, and a volunteer for the Pembroke Rescue Squad and the Caregiver Support group. She served on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Hospice of Robeson County, the Lady’s Lion Club, the Professional and Business Women’s Club of Pembroke and was active in her church’s Women’s Mission Union. In addition to her employment and volunteer activities, Sampson had a devoted husband and raised three daughters and a son. She passed away on January 11, 2014.
PRESENT DAY
With the passage of state and federal laws outlawing racial segregation and ensuring equal rights for Native Americans, Lumbee people have earned degrees from a variety of nursing schools and become nursing leaders. Today, two of the most prominent Lumbee nurse leaders are Bobby Lowery, PhD, RN, MN, FNP-BC, FAANP, and Cherry Maynor Beasley, PhD, MS, FNP, RN, CNE. Their admirable accomplishments inspire today’s young nurses, both Lumbee and non-Lumbee, to excel in their profession.
Bobby Lowery is a native of Robeson County and a member of the Lumbee Tribe. With over 30 years combined nursing experience as a family nurse practitioner, health policy advocate and educator, he holds a BSN and PhD in Nursing from East Carolina University and a Master of Nursing from Emory University. Lowery retired at the rank of Captain after twenty years of service as a Commissioned Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. He developed, implemented, and directed the inaugural DNP Program at East Carolina University College of Nursing where his work with the virtual community clinic learning environment is the foundation for $2,197,446 in funding for Interprofessional Education. A respected leader, he has served on the North Carolina Nurses Association Board of Directors, chaired the NP Executive Committee, and was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Commission for Advanced Practice Nursing. Lowery also served on the Board of Directors for the NC Board of Nursing where he has chaired the NP Joint Subcommittee, Education and Practice Committee and the Midwifery joint committee. Nationally, he chaired the NCSBN Distance Education Committee and is a past AANP State Representative. Lowery’s research on NP regulation expands nursing knowledge and informs stakeholders regarding the need for evidence-based NP regulation and interprofessionalism in health care. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Currently, he serves a Nursing Practice Consultant-NP for the NC Board of Nursing where he participates in proposed recommendations on actions relating to regulation of nursing practice for consideration by the Board and serves on the Senior Staffing Practice Committee and Research Committee. Lowery is currently participating in a one-year fellowship program with the American Nursing Advocacy Institute where he is focusing on full-practice authority for Advanced Practice Nurses in North Carolina.
Cherry Beasley is the Anne R. Belk Endowed Professor for Rural and Minority Health at UNC-P. She earned her BSN in 1973 from the University of Michigan, a MS in Nursing and Public Health Nursing at UNC-Chapel Hill, a post-master’s FNP from the University of South Carolina, and her PhD in 2009 from East Carolina University. Beasley is the first Lumbee to have earned a baccalaureate, masters, and doctor of philosophy all in nursing. Her areas of expertise are cultural role in health care decision making, rural health, diabetes, nursing workforce issues, and women’s health. Beasley is a member and leader in numerous nursing organizations, including the American Nurses Association, the North Carolina Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, and the National League for Nursing, and Delta Omega. She is the past chair of the NC Center for Nursing. Beasley has successfully written and administered many grants and is the author of numerous articles. A generation of nursing students have benefited from her dedication to and excellence in nursing education. She continues to live and work in her native homeland where she serves on several local boards and has recently been selected as the first Secretary of Health for the Lumbee Tribe.
LOOKING FORWARD
Lumbee nurses’ contributions to nursing have been overlooked in the literature. Despite being a relatively small, federally unrecognized tribe, and having suffered racial discrimination and segregation for most of their history, the Lumbee Tribe has produced several outstanding nurses. These nurses have both provided care to vulnerable people under difficult circumstances and enhanced the nursing profession. Their lives and work should not be forgotten.
Acknowledgments. Both Cherry Beasley and Bobby Lowery were invaluable in writing this article. Through conversations and draft revisions each has improved the accuracy of this piece. Any errors are mine alone.
