Providing Hope and Recovery for Those Who Bravely Serve Their Country
By Hilary Ryan Buryanek

As both a science and an art, nursing fulfills a mission and a greater need for the world at large, the beauty of it lying in its universality and capacity to care for human beings in their most vulnerable state. I have long felt that the spirit of altruism is ingrained in individuals and may lend credence to why nursing is a calling rather than a profession. Serving in a role in which that calling was fulfilled has proven to teach me more than I ever imagined about human nature and life itself.
Mental health was my first love entering the nursing field. However, I wanted to gain bedside experience before exploring a specialty route for knowledge and well-roundedness. I am currently achieving my goals of fulfilling my passion for mental health with prospective hopes of building the bridge to tie my military experiences into my future career so I can better serve a role in which persons are heard and understood. With challenges unique to the military and deployment, the ability to offer empathy regarding deployment difficulties in regards to reconnection and reintegration can be rare to find. However, I believe it to be a necessary connecting piece to provide the best quality of care.
No matter how lost or broken we may feel in life, finding our greater purpose can be a challenge, but that struggle is not our identity. We were created to love and be loved, and we inherently have meaning and purpose. Creating culture from that recognition has been one of my greatest joys on this journey.