Every year during Nurse's Week, UAB Hospital has various events each day to celebrate their nurses. On Tuesday, there was the annual Nursing Fair. The Nursing Fair is basically just a bunch of vendors advertising things nurses may be interested in, but the highlight of the event for me is always the free stuff (pens, candy, and even a sticker that I got to wear for the rest of the day that said "Not Just Another Nurse"). Some of my co-workers and I ventured over to the Nursing Fair during our lunch break on Tuesday. While at the Fair, we were each handed a copy of the 2010 UAB Nursing Annual Report. Not really the most thrilling piece of literature, but I figured I would save it and read it during one of those rare moments that I had nothing better to do. One of my co-workers started flipping through the booklet, and all of the sudden she exclaimed, "Look, Ann, it's you!". Sure enough, there was a picture of me hard at work in the booklet. Here's a link to the online version of the Annual Report, in case you're interested.
When I first saw the picture of myself in the booklet, I had no recollection of having my picture taken. After racking my brain for a little while, I finally remembered. It was about 3 or 4 months ago, and I was assessing one of my patients at the beginning of my shift. A guy from the marketing department at UAB came up to me and asked if he could take a couple of photographs of me listening to the baby with my stethoscope. I said sure, and I do remember signing a consent form to be photographed. This is where it gets a little fuzzy, but I seem to remember the guy saying that he was only going to be taking pictures of my hands. At the time, I didn't think the camera was close enough to only be capturing my hands, but I figured he knew what he was doing. Maybe I made up the part about him only photographing my hands. Obviously, he captured more than just my hands. Knowing what I know now, I probably should have spent a little more time getting ready for work that morning...
After getting a few extra copies of the Annual Report so that I could provide my co-workers with autographed copies, my co-workers and I left the Nursing Fair and headed back to the unit. I got busy getting back into my work routine, and I quickly forgot about my newfound fame.
Now, skip ahead to Thursday morning, driving to work. It was just a typical commute to work. Until I approached my exit to get to the hospital. Something on a billboard caught my eye. I did a quick double-take while driving and realized that what had caught my eye was a picture of...myself. Yes, that same picture of me from the Annual Report was plastered on a billboard for all of Birmingham to see:
Okay, so maybe I've exaggerated a tiny bit about just how big the picture is, but still...that's me, on a billboard. I had absolutely no clue that my picture was going to be printed in the Annual Report, much less on a billboard! And to tell you the truth, if my co-worker had not pointed out the picture of me in the Annual Report, it's very possible that I could be oblivious to the fact that my picture is on a billboard--a billboard that I pass every day on my way to work. I guess it will get less weird seeing myself on a billboard as time goes by, but for now it's still pretty wild!
I'm not just another nurse. I'm a nurse on a billboard.
It's big. An eagle could make a nest in your nostril.
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