Paula Manuel is a highly credentialed Registered Nurse from the Greater Toronto Area, and the top nursing blogger of our 2021 Top Nursing Blogs competition. Her blog, “Life of a Nurse,” has a significant readership in the nursing community due to her extensive experience and expertise in the nursing industry. Her career began in downtown Toronto as a pediatric nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children. She worked in the neonatal ICU before she transferred to the pediatric cardiac critical care unit – a high-performance, high-stress environment. “There, I cultivated an interest in going back to school for my Bachelor of Science in Nursing,” she noted. “Subsequently, I got my Master’s of Nursing degree .” Paula has since taken her skills to managerial positions and at the bedside in multiple care settings.
Paula found a love of nursing in senior care settings, noting that “you might think to yourself, ‘wow, pediatrics is very different.’ Well, a number of seniors actually go through a second childhood of sorts. So, my pediatric background held me in great stead in senior care.” Paula went on to become the manager of the unit where she was delighted to practice all the nurse management theories that included trust and transparency she learned and cultivated throughout her nursing career. “It’s about framing ideas and protocols in ways that people understand and are inspired to carry out. And it’s about being receptive to ideas and thoughts, no matter who it comes from.”
Paula felt inspired to share her knowledge, opinions, and expertise to the nursing community, so she started a blog. “A lot of the themes in the blog are what nurses are looking for,” said Paula. “There will be more [blog posts] on how we’re going to recover from the pandemic and the nursing challenges that we’re facing. It’s not just the US and Canada where nurses are [leaving the bedside]. It’s everywhere in the free world.” But as Paula notes, the discussion cannot just be about the pandemic or its response. It’s about nurses: talking to them, listening to them, in and outside the clinical context.
Her blogs range from titles such as, “Lockdown Insights from Critical Care”, to, “My Heart Soul Practice.” “In 2022, my goal for the blog is to continue to be an inspired voice for nursing. It’s too easy to get in the downward spiral of, ‘everything is so awful,’” said Paula.
“I am not only a working nurse and a blogger… I am addicted to golf,” added Paula. Golf has been her “sanity saver” during these current difficult years in nursing. “When people say, ‘oh this is horrible’ after a bad shot,’ or, ‘I’m having a terrible day.’ [I say] ‘Oh, are you? Find a bad day, I’ve seen worse.’” All jokes aside, Paula loves to take her open, problem-solving mindset to both her hobby of golf and to her passion of nursing.
Join us in congratulating Paula Manuel for winning the 2021 Top Nursing Blogs! Check out the Top Nursing Blogs page to see the rankings
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