Marie Manthey’s Nursing Salon

Yesterday I had a great experience. The Univeristy of Minnesota School of Nursing Foundation invited me to ‘do the Printy lecture’, a funded annual event for the past 15 years. My talk was titled “Back to the Future”……and the auditorium was nearly full…..over 100 nurses and a few visitors. The talk went well and the questions afterwards were good. What was especially rewarding for me was the cross section of my life represented there….from nurses I taught, to nurses I worked with, to nurses with whom at some time or another I plotted and planned and schemed with to improve patient care.

I just love being where I am. Semi retired…..meaning time to do things I couldn’t do when I was running CHCM. Acknowledging my 50th year in the profession….and feeling good, really good about that. Loving history and having an opportunity to work on nursing history for the School of Nursing. Having access to information and the latest thinking about the future of health care…..both the good and the bad of it. Being able to reflect on the past and project into the future. And being able to think about what it all means and to share those thoughts with others. It just doesn’t get much better than that…..except to also be attached to a progressive School of Nursing that I believe is reigniting the Spirit of Inquiry and Research through a transformation process that is improving the culture of the school for both students and faculty.