🌿 Why your nurse matters 🌿
Your nurse is often the person closest to your everyday experience of illness, recovery, and daily life. What you share can matter more than you might think.
Garden illustration created with artificial intelligence assistance
🤝 Companion story · Read alongside
🌙 When the Chiropractor Needs a Nurse Practitioner
A companion to Dr. Ron Weiss’s story: Nathanael’s firsthand account of helping change a phone routine that needlessly disturbed a night-call nurse around shift change, and why caring for caregivers helped shape Flourishing Nursing™.
Sometimes the person who spends a lifetime helping other people heal needs someone else to notice what they cannot yet see.
🪔 Kitchen Monk™ reflection
👀 Your nurse may notice something important that does not fit neatly inside a diagnosis.
🌙 Maybe you are not sleeping.
⏰ Maybe your medication schedule does not fit your work schedule.
🦵 Maybe walking hurts.
🛒 Maybe you cannot afford the foods you were told to eat.
🫂 Maybe you are caring for everyone else.
🪟 Maybe you are lonely.
❓ Maybe you do not understand what happened at your last appointment.
🧩 Maybe you received good advice that simply does not fit your life.
Flourishing Nursing asks nurses to notice those things too.
You don’t have to have the right words. It is enough to say, “This part is hard.”
📖 Your story is part of your care
Not everything shows up on a lab result. Nurses are trained to notice patterns, changes, and the story behind the symptoms. That works best when you feel free to tell them what is actually going on. You are welcome to share things like:
- 🔔 a symptom that is new, is changing, or just doesn’t feel right to you
- 🔍 something you’ve noticed that nobody has asked about
- 🔋 changes in your sleep, energy, mood, eating, or how you get around
- 🏡 what’s happening at home, work, or in your community that affects your health
- 👨👩👧 what a family member or caregiver has noticed
❓ Questions you’re always welcome to ask
- 🔗 “Could this be connected to anything else going on with me?”
- 🩺 “Is this worth mentioning to my doctor or nurse practitioner?”
- 📞 “What should I watch for, and when should I call?”
- 🤝 “Can you help me explain this to the rest of my care team?”
🚨 If something feels urgent, please don’t wait for a scheduled visit. Call 911 or your local emergency number, or contact your healthcare team right away.
🪔 A Flourishing Nursing Story · under source verification
🩺 When the Physician Needs a Nurse Practitioner
Doctors become patients too. Our sister site tells a story built around a Chef AJ LIVE! conversation with lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Ron Weiss, in which Lyme disease is discussed. We’re waiting to review the exact transcript before retelling it, so for now we invite you to hear it in his own words.
▶ Tap the cover to watch on Chef AJ’s YouTube channel, starting at 23:30 (Lyme disease segment runs to 29:30). The channel allows this video to play only on YouTube. Video © its original publisher.
🫂 Who cares for the caregiver?
Physicians, nurses, dietitians, therapists, coaches, chefs, and family caregivers all spend their days looking after other people. Every one of them eventually needs someone to look after them. If you care for someone, your own health deserves attention too.
The nurse does not have to know everything.
The nurse has to notice, listen, and care.
And you’re always welcome to speak up, too.
🤝 Not nursing above anyone. Not nursing beneath anyone. Nursing beside everyone.
🌿 Did a nurse notice something for you?
If a nurse listened, noticed, or spoke up for you or someone you love, we’d be honored to hear about it. Stories come privately to Nathanael, and nothing is shared without your review and permission. Please leave out names and anything that could identify anyone.
ℹ️ About this page. Written by Flourishing Nurse Ninja Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM, with artificial intelligence–assisted drafting · Independent external review: not yet completed · Last updated October 2, 2026
This page is for education and reflection. It does not establish that similar symptoms have the same cause and should not be used for self-diagnosis. Lyme disease and other medical conditions require individualized evaluation by qualified healthcare professionals. The experiences and comments in linked videos belong to their respective speakers. Kitchen Monk™ and Flourishing Nursing are independent initiatives and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation unless explicitly identified.
🎥 Watch the Chef AJ conversation on YouTube
The video owner has disabled playback on other websites. Open the original Chef AJ recording at 23:30 to hear the Lyme disease discussion with Dr. Ron Weiss.
▶ Watch Dr. Ron Weiss on Chef AJ’s YouTube channel from 23:30 ↗. Video belongs to its original publisher.
🩺 Scripture for the whole nursing team
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Mark 12:31 · KJV
Excerpt from Mark 12:31, part of Jesus’ answer on the greatest commandments (Mark 12:28–31).
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”
Romans 12:15 · KJV
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Galatians 6:9 · KJV
🌿 Nathanael’s reflection: Compassionate care takes many forms: helping someone eat, protecting rest, noticing a change, explaining a treatment, advocating for assistance, teaching a skill, or remaining present when words are difficult. Every nursing role contributes to the care people experience, from nursing assistants, LPNs/LVNs, and registered nurses to every advanced practice, education, leadership, research, coaching, and public health role, and every student. Perseverance in doing good also includes rest. No one should have to give care at the cost of their own health.
