Welcome Back! I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas.
I want to say a massive thank-you for reading my Blog, Nurse Advocate, and for your comments, accolades, and support over the years.
2025 is a milestone year, marking 10 years of writing this Blog. My first Blog was posted on July 22, 2015. Here is the first paragraph: Welcome to my blog, Nurse Advocate. I decided to develop this Blog to share my experience as a nurse, a case manager, a nurse advocate, and, most recently, a patient. Through weekly posts, I plan to share insights from my experiences that have clarified the challenges one can face in the healthcare system.
My goals were to:
- Write stories from my own experiences to help people navigate the complex health care system effectively and empower everyone to have a voice in their care.
- Post as often as I could and share my posts broadly. I feel like I have met this goal. Since 2015, I have written 467 posts, sharing a variety of messages that have resonated with readers and been widely shared on social media, expanding my reach nationally and internationally.
- Receive awards for my writing. If you look at my website on the right rail and at the bottom of the page, you will see the various awards I have received for my writing. I felt that receiving this recognition was important because I wanted to keep improving my writing and stay focused on why I was doing this work.
2025 was the first year that I ‘forgot’ to mention my anniversary of becoming a cancer patient with Brain Cancer. I was diagnosed on November 24, 2014. Each year, I would post about how I was doing and the progress I had made. As I got further out, those messages became more memorable as I continued to progress, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
When I realized I had forgotten my anniversary, I realized it was because I was involved with another person fighting cancer. My niece, a 44-year-old vibrant woman with a husband and two active children, was fighting her own battle. I have tried to mentor her by sharing the lessons I learned from my cancer journey. I know each person’s battle is their own, and we each fight it in our own ways. My niece is coping well but is scared, hopeful, and fighting as hard as she can to overcome Stage Four Lymphoma that came out of the blue in August 2025. Please keep my niece in your thoughts as we enter 2026 and as she continues on her journey.
As I usually do in my end-of-the-year recap, I highlight the Ten Blogs of the year, as chosen by my readers. This year, the top ten tell a story of where we are. Each tells its own story, but together they give me insight into how relevant my writing is to my audience. This review helps me decide which direction to take in the new year.
In 2025, I wrote a series of posts that I hoped would help readers understand the importance of preparing for our own mortality, so that when the time comes, we can hand off our ‘lives’ to those we designate to close our home, our estate, and other details we call life. In my first post of 2026, I will share those posts again so you can read them and share them so we can all start preparing for the next steps in our journey called life.
Top Ten from the bottom up…….take time to read my top 10 post from 2025. They are telling of our times. I hope you enjoy them!
10. A New Badge Recognizing Nurses Advocates! We have to toot our own horn from time to time!
9. A New Year – A New Slate – Design Yours Well. Buy yourself a pretty notebook and start writing. Your thoughts will begin to flow, helping you make 2026 the best year yet!
8. Moving Theory to Practice: How Case Managers Can Expedite the Process by Using the Case Management Standards of Practice. If you are a professional case manager, make 2026 the year you read the Case Management Standards of Practice to stay reminded of your role, functions, and responsibilities.
7. Preparing for End of Life (Part One) Make 2026 the year you start preparing for the end of your life so you leave this world the way you want it. Remember: You don’t live just once. We die once. We live every single day. Use the time wisely.
6. Patients Are People – Get to Know Them To Improve Outcomes. This post talks about humanizing our healthcare system. Read, share, and add your own tips!
5. Life is Short! Take the Trip, Buy the Shoes, Eat the Cake I love that this post made the top ten! Read and share!
3. Communication: The Core Competency for Successful Patient Centered Care WE have to use our voices to remind everyone we are in this together. Never stop learning how to communicate better.
2. When you don’t know what to say at the end of Life – Try These Four Phrases. I love it when we learn simple things that help us in life through stories. Take a minute to read this post so you have it when YOU need it.
The Number One blog post for 2025 was “Words from Pope Francis: The People’s Pope.” Pope Paul left us in 2025, but his words live on. I hope you will read this, as it helps us see our role as people in these disruptive times.
I included links to the top ten posts so you can reread them or read them for the first time. I hope they touch you! If you have a topic you would like me to cover in a future post, I would love to hear from you in the comment section or email me at allewellyn48@gmail.com
“As I look back on a decade of writing, I’m reminded that our shared stories are what keep this community strong.”
Look forward to some interesting writings in 2026. I hope you look forward to reading Nurse Advocate to learn, grow, and share your thoughts.I hope you and your family have a Happy and Healthy 2026!
Anne Llewellyn, The Nurse Advocate
Outstanding as always Anne. I am so happy to call you my friend and recall.all that we have been through during our case management travels over the years. Good times and bad times we always manage to get things done and move on to the next thing. No matter what our Faith has carried us thru. May God continue to be with all of us as we care for our patients, their families and ourselves. Stay well and safe.
Love to all Betty Stover RN (age 92)
Thanks, Betty! You are the best.