FEATURE
Nurses with a Purpose
Two Harpeth Hall alumnae returned to campus to care for all of us in a year when their work was more important than ever.
The
night that Rachael McKenzie Nusbaum ’08 slipped on a stretch of clear liquid at a college party, she didn’t think much of it. Her feet came out from under her, and she landed on her back. Yes, she was in pain, but she chalked it up to the fall. Nothing that a few Benadryl and some sleep couldn’t cure. As she got ready for bed later that night, she took a shower. That’s when she saw her backside — black and charred from her shoulders down past her waist. The substance she slipped on was floor stripper. She had suffered a severe chemical burn. “She could have died,” her sister, Harpeth Hall nurse Ann Randolph McKenzie ’12, said. “And that was really scary.” Ms. Nusbaum spent two weeks in the hospital — one in Athens, Georgia, and another at Vanderbilt in Nashville — and then transitioned home. For the next weeks and months, Ms. McKenzie who was in high school then, worked alongside her mom to treat her sister’s burns. She used washcloths to clean her sister’s back, delicately rubbing separate cloths on each area to avoid the spread of infection. She applied ointment underneath gauze pads. She cut the skin that peeled away as it healed. She also did so much more. “She held my hand the first time I asked to see my back — the severity of my burns,” Ms. Nusbaum said. “She held my hand as I turned to the mirror. She held my hand as I cried— in horror and disbelief — that this was my new reality. That the stranger in the mirror was me. She held my hand as I sobbed for what I thought I had lost. “I’ll never forget those precious moments that she looked me in the eye and said, ‘This is just a scar. It doesn't define or change who you are. I’m here.’ ” That experience set Ms. McKenzie’s future path to becoming a nurse. “I saw what she was going through, and I told myself you have got to stay strong,” Ms. McKenzie said. “Once she got hurt, I realized this is something I want to do and something I can do — take care of other people.” Nearly a decade later, in Fall 2020, Ms. McKenzie returned to her alma mater as a nurse. This year, she has cared for others who, like her sister, truly needed her. 26 | HARPETH HALL HALLWAYS
“Harpeth Hall really prepared me,” she said. “It challenged me. It taught me a lot, especially about being a female and speaking up for myself. So I wanted to come back and be a support to the school that supported me growing up.” It was her sister’s injury that moved Ms. McKenzie to be a nurse — and it was Winterim that helped shape that career path. Ms. McKenzie interned in Vanderbilt’s burn unit her junior year. She became the first student to work in the unit, with Harpeth Hall facilitating that opportunity because of how important it was to her personal experience. At Vanderbilt, Ms. McKenzie shadowed a child life specialist, a nurse, a physical therapist, and others. “That experience solidified me wanting to be a nurse,” Ms. McKenzie said. After graduating from Harpeth Hall and University of Tennessee nursing school, Ms. McKenzie returned to work in the Vanderbilt burn unit full time. There, she learned that injury often extends beyond the physical and that wellness means more than a healthy body. “There’s so much more to nursing than giving meds and treating a cut,” she said. “Nursing is about being an advocate and a caretaker. You have to consider a person’s emotional needs, their mental needs, their spiritual needs. All of those factors make up a person, and you need to get that overall picture when caring for someone so you can give them the best care possible.” When she joined Harpeth Hall as the school nurse in 2020, Ms. McKenzie became an advocate for students. With the pandemic at the forefront of all health and safety decisions, she navigated policies, quarantine periods, and communication with parents and students. Ms. McKenzie confidently guided everyone she worked with, serving as a solid and steady source of support. “It was a difficult year for everyone,” Ms. McKenzie said. “It’s been a journey.” But that journey has been part of shaping who she is as a caregiver. Whether it’s her sister or a student, Ms. McKenzie wants the same outcome. “If someone is in pain or hurting,” she said, “I want them not to go through that.”
