Renewing Purpose By Nourishing the Heart of Nursing

Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month? Until recently, I did not … although, I have had a keen interest in nutrition since my first course in nursing school. It makes sense to me that our tomorrow depends on what we feed ourselves today, and that is not just in food. It is in what we feed ourselves through thoughts and actions too.

This month, I find myself looking back on February with gratitude and intention. February always feels full of love, reflection, history, and connection. Valentine’s Day invites us to name what we love and recommit to it. Black History Month calls us to honor resilience, excellence, and those who have shaped nursing through courage and perseverance. Mardi Gras, celebrated joyfully in my home each year with the baby in the king cake, reminds me of the importance of gathering, tradition, and community. Taken together, February asks us to pause and remember what matters most.

March Arrives with Reminders of Self-Care and Reconnection

March brings a subtle shift. The days grow longer. Spring approaches. There is a sense of renewal in the air. In the quiet transition from winter to spring, renewal reminds us that caring for others begins with reconnecting to the purpose, community, and compassion that first drew us to nursing. As National Nutrition Month, March is also a timely reminder that what we feed ourselves, both physically and emotionally, matters. As nurses and educators, we are excellent at feeding others: teaching, caring, mentoring, advocating. We are not always as intentional about feeding ourselves or tending to our own souls. This transition from February into March feels like an invitation to do both.

Nursing Practice: A Lifelong Devotion

At my core, I am a nurse. Nursing is not just my profession; it is part of my family story. I am a third-generation nurse, and nursing has always been woven into the fabric of my life. Like so many in our profession, I come from a family where caring for others was modeled, valued, and lived long before it was ever taught in a classroom. Nursing often runs in families, not just as a career choice, but as a shared language of service, compassion, and resilience. That sense of belonging and legacy shaped who I was long before my first clinical day as a nursing student.

Additionally, cardiac nursing holds a special place in my heart. Working in cardiology reminds me to pay close attention to rhythms, responses, subtle changes, and the trust patients place in us during vulnerable moments. Those experiences reinforce why I have continued to practice nursing while teaching. Caring for patients whose stories revolve around the heart is both technical and deeply human. It reminds me that nursing is about presence, connection, and honoring the stories people carry with them.

That love for clinical nursing continues to shape my work as an educator and researcher. I am a nurse who loves teaching and a teacher who continues to practice nursing. My research interests live at that intersection, focusing on resilience, professional identity, mentorship, and the organizational conditions that influence nurses’ ability to stay, grow, and thrive, especially new graduate nurses. This work is personal. It grows from listening to nurses carry exhaustion and pride in the same breath, and from recognizing those same tensions within myself.

Continuing to practice as a nurse keeps me grounded. It feeds my teaching and informs my research. One of the greatest gifts of nursing is its flexibility across a lifetime. Nursing allows us to evolve, moving between bedside care, education, leadership, and scholarship, without leaving the profession we love. I have stepped into many different roles over the years, each one helping me better understand where my purpose lives.

There was a season when I left the classroom to serve as a Director of Nursing. That experience deepened my respect for nursing leadership and the immense responsibility carried by those in these roles. While I ultimately realized that the administrative role was not where my own purpose was best fulfilled, I remain deeply committed to supporting the longevity and sustainability of nursing leadership. For me, returning to the classroom felt like nourishment; it was a return to the place where my passion, skills, and sense of impact align most clearly.

OADN: Opportunities to Serve and Stay Connected

My love for nursing education is rooted in community, particularly through my involvement with the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. OADN represents access, opportunity, and the power of nursing education to change lives. It reflects the same values that drew generations of my family, and so many others, into nursing: connection, service, and commitment. It reminds me that education is not just about content, but about relationships, mentorship, and preparing nurses for sustainable, meaningful careers.

As we step into March, with spring approaching and nutrition at the forefront, I am reminded that caring professions require care in return. Feeding ourselves well means more than nutrition alone; it means tending to our purpose, reconnecting with what we love, and giving ourselves permission to pause, reflect, and renew while staying connected to the communities that sustain us. My hope is that nurses and educators take this moment to feed both their bodies and their souls, to reconnect with the love that brought them into nursing, and to recommit to the version of this work that sustains them.

Nursing has given me a lifetime of possibilities and a sense of belonging that spans generations. Teaching allows me to pass that gift forward. As the seasons shift, I am reminded that returning to the heart of nursing, again and again, is how we continue to endure, grow, and thrive.

Jennifer E. Smith EdD, MSN, MBA, RN, CNE, CV-BC
Director, Midwest Region – OADN Board of Directors
Professor of Nursing, Harper College – Palatine, Illinois