Year of the Nurse - 'It's rewarding to have a part in helping the patient'
1/30/2020
This article was written by Karen Kistler and originally appeared in the Mooresville Tribune on Wednesday, January 29, 2020
According to the January 2020 Gallup Poll, nurses, for the 18th years in a row, have received the highest rating for honesty and ethics, and this trusted group of medical professionals are being honored this year as 2020 is being recognized as the Year of the Nurse.
This particular year was designated as it celebrates the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
To kick off this year of the nurse locally, the Lake Norman Regional Medical Center’s Nursing Leadership Council gathered and chatted about what drew them to become nurses as well as the changes that have taken place, and challenges and rewards of the profession.
Here at the Mooresville hospital, “it’s about nurses every day,” said Leigh Whitfield, director of marketing and public relations.
Approximately 170 years of experience were in that one meeting room, representing a wide variety of departments in the Mooresville hospital.
Wanting to follow in her mother’s footsteps, Marie Marks, chief nursing officer of the hospital, said, “I saw what she did on the Indian reservation. She was my inspiration and wanted to be just like her. I wanted to help people.”
Marks’ daughter is likewise a nurse, marking three generations in this family of helping others.
Rebecca Moore, who is director of emergency services, shared, “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a nurse.”
Loving animals, Moore said she first considered going in the direction of being a veterinarian. “I loved to care for them,” she said. But when she learned in that career she would have to put animals to sleep, she said, “I can’t do that.” Therefore, she knew that nursing would be her career path.
An only child, Ann Carpenter’s love of nursing started early as well as she said she took care of her dolls. The nursing director of medical services unit also shared that she “connected with teachers who gave me inspiration to continue in the nursing field, to grow and succeed.” Nursing offers a great opportunity to advance, she noted.
Two of the nurses, Christian Carallo, who is director of education, staff development and nursing supervision, and Michael Hendershot, director of critical care/float pool/dialysis, didn’t start out as nurses, but decided later to switch to a nursing career.
Carallo said he went to school in the Philippines and was on the career path to become a lawyer, but switched and is happy about the change. Even in the field of nursing, he said he started as a cardiac nurse and was then “pulled into leadership and nursing education. Now I can’t imagine anything else,” he said.
Hendershot noted that he was first a carpenter and married a nursing student. When the business declined, he said he was thinking about what he would go into and decided on nursing.
“My wife laughed for a few days, Hendershot said,” but when began his clinicals he shared how he saw the various needs of patients, and 22 years later continues helping to meet those needs.
When asked what changes they have seen in nursing through the years, safety, both for the patient and the staff was mentioned by several of the directors.
Safety in how medicines are dispensed was one aspect as they are now scanned.
“Technology driven by the need to make sure all safe,” Carallo said.
Julie Mauney, service line director, noted how the method of giving and receiving reports has changed over the years for nursing overall.
Previously the patient reports would be tape recorded by the prior shift and the next shift would come in and listen to the message. Now, Mauney said, reports are completed at the bedside of the patient, involving them in their care thus providing more transparency in the healthcare as the patient knows what is going on.
Technology, said Marks, was another change she has seen over her years of service, which met with other directors nodding in agreement. Technology can also be a challenge at times she added.
The length of a patient’s stay has also been a change, noted Jaquelyn Hill, director of ortho/neuro/spine.
Several of the directors added to this thought as they mentioned not only the length of stay changing but the process of admittance has changed over the years.
“Standards for admission has changed,” Moore said.
Mauney shared that “from the medical unit to the CCU, the very sick are admitted. But for the simple things, they are not admitted these days.
Carpenter noted that the patient is provided treatment and then released so they can continue healing at home and be able to use home health.
“Our goal is to connect that care – hospital to home.”
Nursing is a “constant journey of learning,” Marks said.
What nurses have to know has also created another change for the nurses, which in turn helps their patients. The advanced cardiac life support protocol, or how to treat a cardiac arrest, has changed, Moore said. There’s constant learning, advanced training.
“With the increase in travel (abroad these days), there are new things that wouldn’t be common here,” Carpenter said.
Even with all the changes that have taken place over the years, there is one thing that hasn’t changed, Carallo said, and that is “how we care for patients. We will sit and hold a hand and talk it through. Patients are important.”
The shortage of bedside nurses is another challenge. Nursing pathways have changed with lots more options available for nurses to take.
“I don’t think we have a shortage of nurses,” Marks said, “but a shortage of bedside nurses. There are so many opportunities with businesses out there wanting to hire, I think it has created a shortage of bedside nurses.”
And, Marks noted, “we are (a society of) instant gratification. It takes time to heal, which can be very challenging.
Whatever challenges there may be, the rewards are just as great, as each director smiled as they shared some of their memories.
Moore recalled a patient, who had coded, meaning having suffered a cardiac arrest and was brought back, and then how “rewarding it was to see that patient walk in and thank you for what had been done for them.”
Carpenter likewise shared that she remembered ten years ago sitting at the bedside talking with a patient and the conversation turned to talking about monkeys. That patient later brought her a stuffed money which she has sitting in her office to this day.
It’s the “memory we have is what is rewarding,” Carpenter said.
Marks said that is it “nice when we receive letters from patients and/or their family.”
When compassion is depleted, that encouragement helps motivate and bring back that passion, Marks continued. “Our focus is on the individual patient; our focus is on compassionate care. It’s most rewarding to see that patient who sick leave better and to have had a part in helping them.”
Carallo noted that “we meet people at their worst,” as he remembered one who at the time of their sickness wasn’t kind, but they later returned to say thank you.
“That is what keeps us going, motivated and making a difference,” said Carpenter.
Mauney reflected on another type of reward for the nurse in leadership position training and mentoring new nurses as she said, “It’s refreshing to watch that new person, watch them come back as powerful, and come full circle to be a supporting team member.”
While they may have the title of director, each of these in a leadership position was quick to say that they are still on the floor, seeing patients and helping.
Carpenter summed it up by saying, “We don’t expect them (nurses) to do what we don’t do.”
And nursing doesn’t stop for any of these when they leave the building.
“We are nurses 24/7,” Marks said.
“It doesn’t stop, it’s what we do,” Carallo shared.
Pictured (from left) are Christian Carballo, Brenda Burk, Jaquelyn Hill, Julie Mauney, Marie Marks, Rebecca Moore, Ann Carpenter and Michael Hendershot.
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