I just worked what might be my last shift ever taking care of patients on the inpatient psychiatry unit at OHSU. I'm taking another unpaid leave of absence from my job starting September 1, and I will resign if I win in November. City Council members work full time, and the Charter forbids concurrent employment or business pursuits. I hope to be able to volunteer enough hours doing skilled nursing activities to keep up my license, but that won't be the same as doing regular 8-hour swing-shift patient care assignments.

I have worked in hospitals as a staff nurse for 27 years, since I earned my RN license in 1981. I've worked at OHSU for 22 of those years. I love nursing. I love helping to heal and finding solutions to difficult problems, I love my wonderful coworkers and providing expert care by efficient teamwork, I love teaching and learning in the university environment. Walking out into the suddenly-fall night air at midnight today, I thought to myself, "Really? You're really doing this?". It felt very much like walking out at the end of my shift on December 16, 2001, wondering if the OHSU nurses would be going out on strike at 6 a.m. the next day.

We did. And we stayed out for nearly two months, and we won.

I don't know what the next two months will bring, or what the outcome on November 4 will be. I know I am ready to run with perseverence the race that is set before me. And that the skills and experience I've earned in being a nurse will continue to help me to help others, whatever I do and wherever I go.