VNA’S Back Story

This was a watershed moment for me: I was working as a new Kaiser Permanente Home Health Nurse in 1999’. I was providing in-home skilled nursing care to a patient who was battling a hormonal related cancer, she was also receiving chemo therapy. This patient was a Mother, Wife and she was still working. I remember my patient reporting to me that she had trouble falling asleep. The prescribed sleep-aids did not work for her. With my patient’s input we developed a plan for my patient to get the much-needed rest that was required, so she could fight her cancer and continue with her life in-spite of her diagnosis and rigorous treatment regimen.

In 2008’ a very close family member dies from a suicide. I know for a fact that this family member was taking a prescription sleep-aid, and one of the known side-effects unfortunately is suicidal ideation.  This proved to be another watershed and a completely heart-breaking time for me.

The year of 2012’ was essentially the beginning of my journey to create a better sleep-aid. I did not realize this emerging phenomenon at that time. The impotence for the creation of the Valley Nurses Association, is to support the furtherance of the Well Rested^tm System, along with the other health and wellness products under development. One of the most challenging times of my life came as I started to experience “The Change of Life which caused insomnia.” I had been a health-care professional for over thirty-years, I was extremely concerned about my treatment regimen which included prescription medications that would expose me to side-effects that could have life-long negative physiological effects.

This I know is true; creating, fixing and making things, people and processes better is a dominant trait in my DNA!  In my profession of Nursing we are continuously improving the quality of care that we provide to our patients, communities and populations. The time has come for nurses and other health-care professionals to make changes in the way we provide care, by promoting and assisting our patients with their self–care journeys.