The Nurseling: Memoirs of an Immigrant Nurse

By Ayo Babalola

In October of 2018, author Ayo Babalola, a young Nigerian immigrant woman, arrives on the shores of Canada armed with nothing but a dream: to find fulfilment in a career. Her husband had given up his career of more than ten years in banking and she in the healthcare industry to make the move abroad.

In The Nurseling, Babalola shares the story of her journey, of finding purpose in a land where opportunities to become anything abound. From her growing up years in Africa, to her Nigerian schooling, and to becoming an internal medicine and obstetrics nurse, this memoir tells how her dreams become a reality as the world experiences a new normal.

Babalola admits she didn’t think she was cut out for nursing, but she realized the profession is the answer to her years of seeking her calling. She narrates a story of resilience, of not giving up, and fighting for her place on life’s stage. The Nurseling tells how this is Babalola declaring who she is, her reason for being, the goal setter, and the goal getter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663242471

Ayo Babalola

Ayo Babalola was born in Nigeria and grew up on the Jos Plateau. After her earning a biological sciences degree and working in eye healthcare, she moved to Canada and went back to school to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Babalola has since worked as an internal medicine and obstetrics nurse. She currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with her family.

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Copyright © 2022 Ayo Babalola.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913118

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4246-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4247-1 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 07/21/2022

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Drive to Thrive

Chapter 2 Fate is written in pencil

Chapter 3 Your dreams are valid

Chapter 4 Dormancy

Chapter 5 Be prepared!

Chapter 6 Finding your why

Chapter 7 Dreams Come True

Chapter 8 Exodus

Chapter 9 Hurdles

Chapter 10 Divine Direction

Chapter 11 What opinions are worth

Chapter 12 New grounds

Chapter 13 Of Onset, Peaks and Durations

Chapter 14 The Four-leaf Clover

Chapter 15 For the love of all beings’ nurses

Chapter 16 A Defining Moment

Chapter 17 To be or not?

Chapter 18 What do nurses even do?

Chapter 19 Aim for the stars!

Chapter 20 90 Days a Nurse

Chapter 21 I am Nigerian, not Hebrew

Chapter 22 It does not end here

Epilogue

Dedication

To an awesome trio without which this would not have been…To my husband, Kenny; My Mom, Funmi and My late Dad, Ade.

Dad, you did such a great job daddying me and put so much in me the world will be amazed with the unraveling of it all;

Mom, you give so much for us your children, biological and not. I can only thank you enough when elephants grow wings and fly;

Kenny, words are not enough to describe what I feel. Thank you yet again!

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following people who helped me write these memoirs, and others who matter to my journey:

God, the Captain of my destiny.

My Husband, who is my biggest motivator, support, and critic.

My Dad and Mom, for nurturing my talents of singing and writing.

My siblings and siblings-in-law, for understanding my persona and accepting me as I.

My friends for all seasons, Byenya, Faith, Temie, Mary, Rekiya, Rejoice, Rashida and Seyi.

Temilade, for the one conversation that flickered my nerve and made this happen.

My nursing school pals.

My friends Taiwo and Simi, Vera Green, Bunmi O., Fatima O., Anita, Dr. Kevwe.

All subscribers of the Scribe Nurse service the world over.

A few persons who did not really ‘help’ me but must be mentioned still: the precious, priceless, prodigious children I am blessed to have. Amid your distractions, warm hugs and wet sloppy kisses, Mommy did it!

Introduction

Some stories must be written, or else no one would believe the possibility of it all

-Shannon Alder.

I enjoy writing.

Besides singing and reading books, it is the only other thing I can do to occupy my time and feel relaxed.

At first it wasn’t what I was cut out for, but nursing is the answer to my years of seeking out why I was sent here and what purpose I needed to fulfill.

So here I am doing two things I believe in through one medium; the first I love to do, the other is in line with achieving my goals.

Here is a caution though; if you’re looking for a ‘deep’, ‘woke’ or ‘airflow-restricting’ book, I am not writing one. I do not intend to ‘choke’ you. You may please stop here if you wanted that kind of stuff to read.

Now.

If you have come this far, I take it that you are still interested in reading what I had to put to paper, and I thank you. Next to reading books, traveling, tending my house plants, and re-telling boring stories in a fun way, my other hobbies are daydreaming and making plans. It is how I can unwind and de-stress too. I also find that I care about the wellbeing of people; not just about their physical health or being cured of whatever illness brings them my way. I am also concerned about their mental health and state of mind. I like to see people functioning at their best in all the parts that make up their whole being. I also like human interactions when people are not being pretentious, and people in pain when seeking care rarely pretend.

The ability to express these callings in one outlet is life’s way of throwing me a chance at winning as a nursing fiction writer, and I intend to make excellent use of it.

The first time I heard the word ‘nurseling’ used was during my mental health clinical rotation. One of the friendly nurses had jokingly mentioned that until we students became licensed nurses, we were budding nurses learning the art and science of our trade and as such, nurselings. Like seedlings just sprouting in a nursery will be considered immature until they are transferred to the field (in our case, licensed), it stuck to me and seemed apt that I adopt the appellation through the rest of my school days.

The pages following this therefore summarize my journey as a young woman whose dreams are slowly but surely becoming a reality as an African immigrant who finds her calling as a caregiver equipped with nursing skills at a time when healthcare is evolving. Remember as you turn the pages that these memoirs are my experiences and not anyone else’s. The discussion of nursing as a career amongst African immigrants is a necessity and makes a worthy read for anyone seeking to follow this path. The Nurseling takes you through a journey of a young woman finding purpose in a land where opportunities to become anything abound.

This is not the last you will be reading from me.

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Chapter 1

The Drive to Thrive

Ask…that your joy may be full.

John 16:24

Ayokunmi.

My name when translated to English language means ‘I am filled with joy’. I have always desired that this will ring true for me, but even more than that, I have always desired to be fulfilled and contented; to get to that place where in my heart I am truly satisfied, and I am at peace.

This book sort of sums up my how and why. Many have before me written memoirs. Like them, I will start at the beginning of my life’s story.

Here, meet me and my birth family.

I was a rainbow