HOUSTON, TX, July 27, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Linda Lin, RN, MSN, NP-C, a Nurse Practitioner, has been named a Worldwide Who's Who Professional of the Year in Nursing. While inclusion in Worldwide Who's Who is an honor, only a small selection of members in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, years of service, and the credentials they have provided in association with their Worldwide Who's Who membership.

Ms. Linda Lin was born and grew up in Taiwan, where most of the girls do not make decisions for their own future, but simply accept the decisions made for them by their parents. In the Taiwanese education system, there is an entrance examination for every level of schooling. The college or university a student ends up going to is based not only on the grades achieved on the entrance examination, but also on the school and major picked at the time of applying for the examination. Linda agreed that she would attend any school and study any major other than nursing, but in the eyes of Linda's father, nursing was the only acceptable course of study to pursue. Her father won, and she ended up at Taipei National Nursing College, which is still one of the most prominent nursing colleges in Taiwan. However, she disliked it and contemplated re-taking the examination the following year.

Linda was not a top student at the Nursing College. In addition to being denied the choice of major to pursue, she did not feel she had any opportunities to think critically. To her, it was rather a "Duck feeding method" (no disrespect to her alma mater) of education. The nursing instructors simply taught the class to memorize 1, 2, 3... seldom did the teachers provide the rationale behind what was being done and needed to be done. However, Linda enjoyed the environment of the college. She read extra curriculum material voraciously, wrote poems, played tennis, and took up the task of the chief editor of the monthly school newsletters. She usually studied only right before her examinations, just to pass the tests.

Then, something changed during the summer clinical after one year of didactic studying. At her young age, patients twice her age or older confided in her, they poured out their hearts to her, and the clouds lifted from their faces. "They trusted me!" "What a great honor and privilege!" she told herself. She felt she could really make a difference for her patients. She was empowered by her patients and the interaction with them, and they soon became her mentors in her nursing profession. Ms. Lin continued her work with the school newsletters. The teachers continued to teach without providing rationales, but Linda knew she would finish her nursing education. She had a sense of purpose now, because she could do something for patients. She could be there for them when they were weak, both physically and psychologically.

After coming to the States, Linda furthered her education. She received a master's degree in nursing and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Texas Woman's University. She also became a certified adult nurse practitioner. While studying psychology, she was on the Dean's List and the Golden Key National Dean's List. Eventually, she graduated magna cum laude. Now living in Houston, she co-owns a small clinic where she practices.

Ms. Lin's nursing career has taken her from Taiwan to Germany, Switzerland, Jordan and Egypt before she landed in Texas. She has practiced in many different settings, from highly sophisticated and profitable hospitals to one that had only simple beds and relied on outside help and donations. In one area almost everything was disposable and in another the nurses had to count and lock up the glass urinals every shift lest they be stolen. She has worked at the world's top notch cancer center where there were more than 20,000 employees and the smallest clinic where she was the only clinician. She has unwrapped the awful dressing from a diabetic patient's leg wound, and seen the maggots dropping out from the dressing, while some were still wiggling their way out from his flesh. Linda had also witnessed patients being given expired (or nearly expired) antibiotics, because there simply was no other option. In a place where materials were scarce, one had to be very creative, recycle and reuse whenever possible. Ms. Lin has seen patients being cured despite consuming expired medications; still, it is uneasy to see there is only expired medicine to give to those who come seeking for help.

As a nurse, there are times when relieving pain and suffering conflict with culture and tradition; not an easy task to handle. In one incident, Linda was asked to catheterize a male patient who had not urinated for over 24 hours, and she called on her young native assistant for help. The patient was relieved of his pain immediately, as was his family, but Linda was largely criticized by her native co-workers for exposing herself and another unmarried girl to such an experience. Her co-workers failed to see that on that particular day, both physicians on-call were also unmarried women. Had Linda not done what she did, the outcome would have been the same, namely, an unmarried woman to catheterize a male patient. Although insulted and hurt, Linda does not regret helping that man to this day, and would do it again if circumstance calls for it; she'd do it without a native girl's help. Within the framework of respecting culture and tradition, to relieve the suffering of the patient should outweigh the taboo. Is not this the oath that medical and nursing professionals take?

Among the many countries she has lived and worked in, Egypt touched Linda's heart most profoundly and she calls Egypt her spiritual home. The year Linda left her work in Egypt, she received a letter from a pastor in Switzerland who wrote that he had told the kids in his church about her and her courage to work in a place half way around the globe from home. Many of the kids wanted to become like her when they grew up. She felt so humbled. "Wow!" Linda believes she simply did what she would have done anywhere; this time it happened to be far away. Her sense of responsibility to help others sets in stronger than ever.

The healthcare disparity in that part of the world where Linda had worked and experienced needs global awareness. This awareness includes nursing education, as it is not easy to be admitted into a higher education in nursing; not to mention to go to a nursing school is not generally encouraged to any girl because of the culture. Nevertheless, there are some courageous women who did and became the leaders in the field. Linda had provided nursing education to the native nurses. She would like to see more people interested in the cause. Please drop her a line if you are interested, either to help (any shape, form) or simply want to know more about the situation there.

A multi-cultural and multilingual woman, Ms. Lin speaks Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese, German and English. Outside her nursing profession, Linda loves to read, write Chinese calligraphy, and translate. She has translated several books, both from German and English into Chinese and has written articles for newspapers, church newsletters and the Chinese version of Decision Magazine. Linda also enjoys sewing and playing flute, and she sings in the alto section in her church choir.

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Contact:
Ellen Campbell
Director, Media Relations
[email protected]

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