Kathryn Thomas

Kathryn Thomas, LVN

at St. Joseph Health

JENNY TWITCHELL Special to The Eagle

Kathryn Thomas, LVN, had been working in accounting for almost 30 years when a friend from work suggested she apply for nursing school.

At the time, Thomas was working at a nursing and rehab facility in Katy doing accounting work and almost immediately dismissed her friend.

“I said, ‘Oh yeah right, that’s not going to happen,’ but she said, ‘Just go apply,’” Thomas said.

Then when Thomas saw what the application process at Memorial Hermann consisted of and when she learned that thousands of applicants apply but only 60 are accepted, she had doubts again.

“I saw that application and thought, ‘I will never do this, good grief,’” she said.

But the thoughts about applying wouldn’t go away, so she took the step to apply and was pleasantly surprised when she was accepted. She started nursing school at 45 years old in 2004 and continued to work full time while attending school full time.

“I think you put more effort in when you’re older, when you’re paying for it yourself, but it was something I wanted to do,” she said. “It was intense, but it was something I enjoyed, so I didn’t mind.”

Thomas’ goal while at school was to absorb everything she could so that when she was done, she had a wealth of knowledge to pull from, she said.

“I always thought, ‘If you don’t listen in class, how are you going to know what to do?’ so I worked hard, and when I went to take my test, after 30 minutes, I had already passed - it was supposed to take an hour, but I guess I did well enough that I didn’t need to keep going,” Thomas said.

Since getting licensed 17 years ago as an LVN, Thomas hasn’t looked back. After graduation, she stayed at the nursing and rehab center but transitioned to working as a nurse there, which is also where she found her passion for helping the geriatric population.

“I love that when you’re working with them, it’s like you’re helping someone who could be your grandmother or grandfather, and now it’s like it could be my mother or dad,” Thomas said. “I just love the stories that they tell you, even if they tell them to you 15 times in a day, it just never got old.”

While working at the facility, Thomas’ more mature understanding of the population helped her recognize that when they were acting out of the ordinary, it was most likely due to dementia and didn’t reflect who they really are, she said.

“The older generation is so complimentary, so sweet, and if they’re not acting right in a day, you realize it’s the process of the disease that’s affecting their brain, so you let it roll and you roll with it,” Thomas said. “You wouldn’t believe some of the stories I heard, and I just went along with them.”

Going along with the patients sometimes included “being” someone else or shooing a dog out of the room that wasn’t really there, Thomas said.

“I didn’t want to spend their time arguing with them about what’s real and what’s not, and I’d want to be treated the same way, it’s kind of like, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’” Thomas said.

Her personal experience of having her father pass away two years ago with frontal lobe dementia developed her empathy and compassion for elderly patients as well, Thomas said.

“For years we watched his decline, but because of my experience as a nurse, I understood the process,” Thomas said. “I knew what to do and what to expect. I never argued with him about what or wasn’t correct. I really have to say, I fully enjoy and understand working with older people. I am sure I’ll work as needed in a nursing facility in town when I retire.”

After moving to College Station in 2007, Thomas started working at the Carriage Inn, an assisted living facility, where she continued to work with the elderly population. But as she’s gotten older, Thomas has transition to working as a staff nurse in primary care at St. Joseph, where she has been for five years.

“She is very great with her patients, she always comes to work with a smiling face, and she is a great coworker,” said Ashley Landolt, RTR, radiologic technologist at St. Joseph. “She is very good with the elderly patients – she is very compassionate and is absolutely a key part here.”