In this book for nurses, experienced clinician Maggie Runyon takes a close look at her healthcare career journey, highlighting the expectations that draw students to nursing . . . and the exhaustion and medical burnout that can drive them away.

When healthcare focuses on power and not people, practitioners and patients get left behind.

Maggie's path toward nursing began with a love for the show ER and a desire to help people. As she began her career, though, she realized how ill-prepared she was for the mental health challenges and administrative demands that face modern-day registered nurses.

Now, she extends a compassionate call to young and early-career nurses to understand the systemic challenges facing their chosen profession. With an emphasis on the power of nurse leadership and the necessity of mindfulness and intentional self-care, she highlights how becoming an advocate for one's patients and oneself is a path toward improved health outcomes.

A perfect gift for nurses, I Thought I Was Here to Help provides . . .

• thoughtful questions to guide and support a healthcare career path,
• a personal look at medical burnout,
• strategies for strengthening nurse mental health, and
• a rallying cry to transform healthcare administrations and patient outcomes.

For dedicated nurses just starting their careers or trying to push through a slump, I Thought I Was Here to Help starts a gentle conversation and challenges readers to rethink the handmaiden and hero archetypes in nursing.

Through vivid clinical vignettes and research-backed insights, Maggie shows nurses they are not alone in grappling with the harsh realities of their profession. This nurse memoir invites you to find more than just a cozy spot to read. It's about finding your true place in healthcare power structures and patient journeys.

Maggie Runyon is a nurse, educator, writer, and speaker. She began her nursing career in 2009 and has since practiced in hospitals and communities nationwide, primarily in labor and birth environments.

Maggie maintains a bedside practice at a community hospital in Pennsylvania in addition to her role as founding executive director of the nonprofit Your BIRTH Partners. Maggie is currently pursuing her PhD in nursing and loves educating, mentoring, and learning alongside other clinicians and community advocates.

Her debut book, I Thought I Was Here to Help, examines her own experiences in the nursing profession, reckons with topics from saviorism to burnout, and provides resources and reflection prompts to support nurses in stepping fully into their roles as advocates. Her writing, speaking, and advocacy focus on improving care outcomes through trauma-responsive care, affirming nurses' agency, and community collaboration.

"Reading I Thought I Was Here to Help felt like being handed language for something I didn't even know was weighing me down for years. In sharing her story, the author offers a roadmap for those of us trying to stay whole in a system that often asks us to prioritize everyone else … and never fully or very well.Through Maggie's story and the thoughtful reflection questions at the end of each chapter, I found myself revisiting patient experiences and reevaluating the ways the system rewards my self-abandonment. *yuck*And just when it gets uncomfortable, Maggie asks: 'What if we could have large groups of nurses intentionally explore understanding our power, our value, and our opportunity to create and lead change?'That question ignited something in me. And it's why this is the book every nurse needs on their shelf - those just starting out or decades into their career. At the end of it, you'll have a stronger sense of professional identity and want to reach through the pages and hug your new favorite nursing mentor. I definitely did!" — Mandy Irby, Owner, The Birth Nurse®, BSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM, LCCE, NSI-L1