Nurses | 2023

NURSES

Since the pandemic, it seems like the news cycle has rotated between stories about the heroism and dedication of nurses and stories about nursing shortages. Either way, people are talking about nursing, as a profession, more than ever before—and that’s a good thing. To honor this trusted profession, the following pages highlight some of the nurses and nursing educators doing amazing work in this community, from the classroom to the ICU to the skies above.

BRETT OWENS

Patti Thompson Chief Nursing Officer Northwest Texas Healthcare System

What is your nursing specialty and how long have you been a nurse? My clinical background is adult critical care, specifically trauma and surgical ICU. I have many years of nursing experience, graduating from nursing school in the 1980s.

What inspired you to pursue a career in medicine? I wanted to have a career where you feel you can make a difference and help people in a vulnerable time. Being ill in a hospital impacts a patient and their family members. Most individuals begin their life in a hospital and could ultimately come to the end of their life in a hospital. As a nurse, you help guide patients and families through both happy and sad, lifechanging events.

What do you feel is the greatest skill you bring to your career? I thrive when I get to mentor and build strong nursing leaders and teams. I love working alongside strong nurses who truly care about their patients, each other, and our community.

What is most rewarding about your particular field? Being a nurse is a very rewarding career. As nurses, we perform meaningful work every single day. Every day is different and unique. There is never a boring day in the life of a nurse, regardless of where you work. You are constantly learning because nursing is such an evolving field. Being a nurse executive, I work with a senior leadership team who have been very supportive of a strategic nursing plan, allowing the leadership team to make changes within our hospital to help improve nurse retention, patient safety and improve the overall patient experience.

What is the biggest challenge you face every day? Having the capacity to meet the needs and demands of the Texas Panhandle. Northwest Texas Healthcare System supports many hospitals in the region, covering 26,000 square miles in our 26 counties and neighboring states.

What is something most of your patients might not realize about nursing? Nursing has been challenging as consumer expectations have never been higher (and rightfully so!). It is no different for us, as in many other hospitals in the United States, who experience nursing shortages. Nursing turnover in many hospitals exceeds 30 percent. At NWTHS, we have been fortunate to have a nursing turnover of less than 20 percent. The work environment for nurses can be demanding, both physically and emotionally.

What advice would you give to a new or aspiring nurse? Nursing is considered a noble and highly trusted profession. There are so many different types of nursing jobs: hospital bedside care, administration, home health, public health, school nursing, adjunct faculty teaching, flight nursing, nursing anesthesia—the list goes on and on. You will be overwhelmed at times but will have the ability to contribute to teams that care for patients, no matter what type of nursing you choose. Go for it!

Rico Aviation

In more than 25 years of operations, Rico Aviation has transported thousands of patients across the United States, serving as a 24-hour, intensive care air ambulance for passengers needing fixed-wing aeromedical transport. Good piloting is critical for any flight, but the heart of Rico’s service is its nursing staff.

Jenny Smith has been a critical care flight RN for 13 years, having made a career change after seeing nurses save the day in a highstress situation. “My sister went into preterm labor and my niece, Payton Grayce, spent the first 117 days of her life as a micro-preemie in the NICU,” she says. “The compassion and impeccably diligent care she and my sister received from the nurses every day saved their lives. I changed my profession at 30 and went back to college for a nursing degree, so I could make a positive difference to someone’s family just like those NICU nurses did.”

A family connection also led Brittany Harris into the field. She grew up with a brother who had cystic fibrosis, a progressive, genetic disease that requires regular treatment. “Hospitals were my homeaway-from-home when I was kid,” she says. “I watched nurses take away pain from [my brother] emotionally and physically. I wanted to do the same.”

An RN since 2018, she describes nursing as one of life’s most rewarding professions because it gives her the opportunity to help people during some of their most vulnerable and unexpected moments. “You never know what’s going to happen next,” Harris says. Her patients make her a better person, she adds. “They fill me with humility and gratitude, and I want to give back.”

Former first responder Matt Jolliff has been a paramedic for 12 years and a nurse for three years, currently serving as a flight nurse for Rico Aviation. “I took an EMT course while becoming a firefighter and realized I enjoyed learning about the medical side,” he says.

While nurses in some settings can get pulled in multiple directions, Jolliff says he appreciates the aeromedical setting, which allows him to give patients his undivided attention during flights. “At Rico, we provide advanced critical care and get our patients to the facility they need. Since we only have one patient at a time, we are able to provide the highest quality and compassionate care,” he says.

Jolliff points out that there are a lot of careers that may be easier than nursing, but few are as rewarding. “I love knowing I helped someone when they needed it,” he says. “To be a good nurse means to never stop learning. We are constantly training and continuing our education to provide the latest evidence-based medicine.”

Jenny Smith agrees. “We take care of people on the worst day of their lives. Every patient deserves our best, every time,” she says.

JENNY SMITH

Debby Hall, PhD, RN, CMSRN, CNE Professor of Nursing Amarillo College

What is your nursing specialty and how long have you been a nurse? I graduated with my Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) in 1989. During my career I have specialized in two areas: acute care medical surgical nursing for 20 years, and nursing education for 15 years.

What inspired you to pursue a career in medicine? I always dreamed of being a nurse, but “life happened” and it became a forgotten dream until I was cared for by a nursing student during the birth of my first child. That student inspired me to follow my dream.

What do you feel is the greatest skill you bring to your career? As a medical surgical nurse, I strive to find a higher level of care for our patients whose condition was deteriorating before they coded. (For instance, I got them a bed in ICU before they needed CPR). As a nurse educator, my greatest skill is professional advocacy. I love nursing and I share that love and excitement with everyone I meet.

What is most rewarding about your particular field? As a nurse educator, I love seeing new nurses at work in our area health care facilities.

What is the biggest challenge you face every day?

A big challenge I face every day is clear and effective communication. For a variety of reasons, all of us have experienced moments when the message we are trying to send is not received as intended.

What is something most of your patients might not realize about nursing? Nurses carry a heavy emotional burden, which hides behind what we call “nurse face.” It is a burden that becomes heavier with increasing levels of care and patient acuity. For example, a nurse may be part of the team trying to resuscitate a patient for 30 minutes—which can be incredibly stressful—but then needs to hide those emotions before moving on to the next patient.

What advice would you give to a new or aspiring nurse?

Sometimes individuals who are new to nursing may find it difficult to keep up with the challenges associated with nursing work. Personal stress management that includes frequent selfreflection may help lighten emotional burdens, build resilience, and prevent burnout.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has been a community partner in health care in Amarillo for 50 years. The expansion of the traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in 2022 added a physical presence for the School of Nursing on the Amarillo campus. This May, the inaugural cohort of students will graduate. Three of these nurses—Daniela Arreguin, Taylor Keith and Raynie Spaniel—will stay in Amarillo to provide expert care to the people of the Panhandle.

What inspired you to pursue a degree in nursing? Our passion for serving others is definitely the driving force that has led us to pursue degrees in nursing. We want to provide comfort, be a light in someone’s day, bring awareness to women’s health concerns, and give excellent care.

What do you feel is the greatest skill you bring to your career? We believe that compassion is the greatest skill we bring to the career of nursing. We know how fragile life is and how we should be grateful for each day and each breath we’re granted. Providing compassionate care allows every patient to know you are trying your best to understand what they are feeling. This makes it clear you want the best outcome for them.

What is most rewarding about your field? Being members of the inaugural traditional BSN cohort in Amarillo has been one of the greatest honors of our lives. But on a daily basis, seeing patients get better and go home is always the best feeling.

What is something most of your patients might not realize about nursing? One thing most patients might not realize about being a nurse is how long we have dreamed of meeting those patients. We may not have known them as individuals, but we dreamt about them in nursing school when we should have been making care plans and studying for the countless tests we had to take. We imagined what they would be like. We wondered if we would make a difference in their lives. There are some not-pretty parts about nursing, but there’s really no place we’d rather be than caring for the people who need it most.

For 2022, TTUHSC School of Nursing was named the best nursing school in Texas and the Southwest region by Nursing Schools Almanac. The school also ranked No. 10 nationally among public nursing schools and No. 18 among all nursing schools in the U.S.

Laura Wagner, MSN, RN Instructor-Department of Nursing West Texas A&M University

What is your nursing specialty and how long have you been a nurse? I have been a nurse for 5 ½ amazing years, mainly in Critical Care (Surgical ICU), with experience in Primary Care.

What inspired you to pursue a career in medicine? My parents both have careers in the medical field, so early on I found a fascination with hospitals and health care. My faith also guides me to serve others with compassion and dignity, which are fundamental for working in health care.

What do you feel is the greatest skill you bring to your career? Integrity is a primary characteristic that daily guides my actions. Whether I am on campus, in the community facilities for clinical, or at the grocery store on my days off, I aim to live with integrity in all I do. Integrity, to me, is working with excellence, treating others with kindness/respect, and being honest in all situations—especially when no one is there to witness.

What is most rewarding about your particular field? As an educator, witnessing and sharing in some of students’ most personal moments is a privilege, whether it is the celebration of a student having a breakthrough or sitting with a student as they experience disappointment. And nurses of all kinds get a front-row seat to some of life’s most tender moments. This could be a moment of joy, like a patient showing unexpected improvement, or the unforgettable times when a patient passes from this life to the next. Being a witness to these milestones of life and death is such an honor.

What is the biggest challenge you face every day? Time. Even when it is managed well, there never seems to be enough to dive deeper into content with students or let it marinate for quality. Nursing involves an ever-increasing amount of information, and if time could slow down, we could have more quality to share our knowledge, experience, and time with others.

What is something most of your patients might not realize about nursing? How much the “systems” within health care affect the process, timing, cost, and availability of interventions and resources. When health care providers are rushed, there is often a breakdown in communicating these systems to patients.

What advice would you give to a new or aspiring nurse? Nursing is a team sport that, when every teammate is giving their best effort, can be the most rewarding experience for all those involved. It requires a person to go beyond him/herself and extend compassion to others. It requires perseverance, passion, and purpose, but is completely worthwhile.