day in the life of...

Brieann Edwards

Title: Nurse (RN) Lead for CHRISTUS Outpatient Surgery

Years of experience: 14

Heather Wise

Title: Critical Care Nurse & Palliative Care Nurse

Years of experience: 7

Lynde Hatcher

Title: RN, BSN, CEN

Years of experience: 4

Kennetha Alvarez

Title: Advance Practice Nurse Practitioner

Years of experience: 14

What made you choose this career?

• As long as I can remember, I’ve always found joy in helping others. From being the first born, now a mother myself, my desire to care for people has always been a part of who I am.

- Brieann

• I am a third generation nurse. I saw my mom’s dedication and sacrifice–it always felt like she was serving a higher purpose. - Heather

• I always knew I wanted to do something in healthcare. home been help nursing.

This career chose me. As a child, I always wanted to be a psychiatrist and to help others. As an NP, I help people holistically–mind, body, and soul. - Kennetha

How do you start and end your day at work?

• I make a lap around the department to identify where there are needs, whether with patients, physicians or nurses. -

Brieann

• In Palliative Care, I start by reviewing my consult list for the day and looking up their charts. I’ll end the day making phone calls to family members of patients. While in ICU, every day is unpredictable from start to finish.

- Heather

• I come in to get reports and start working either on completed doctors’ orders or doing assessments on my patients to see if there is any change in their condition. I end my work day by giving reports and catching up on charting. - Lynde

• My work day starts off by reviewing my clients’ information, which includes diagnosis, labs, medications, and treatment plan. Then I round on my patients and treat them throughout the day.

- Kennetha

What time do you eat lunch ?

• Anytime between 11am-2pm. It changes depending on the surgery schedule or various tasks to be completed on any given day. - Brieann

• In Palliative Care I actually eat on time! In the ICU, it’s not a thing. - Heather

• I rarely get to eat lunch. I work in the ER and we’re typically busy all day. If I do get to stop and eat, it’s always something that I can grab and go. - Lynde

• My lunch varies. I like to go before 1 pm on most days.

- Kennetha

What do you wish others knew about this profession ?

• The amount of compassion nurses possess. Nurses add a critical element of trust to healthcare because of the compassion they bring to their work every day. Without the impeccable ability to anticipate the needs of others, nursing would not be the incredible profession it is.

- Brieann

• It is a very rewarding profession that typically goes unnoticed until you are in an emergency/crisis. - Lynde

• The time and dedication we put in during work hours and after. This is a profession that keeps on giving, but I would not imagine myself doing anything else. -

Kennetha

What is the most memorable thing you’ve learned from this profession?

• How important it is to practice empathy and gain perspective for every individual’s circumstance or story.

- Brieann

• Love thy neighbor. I have had the humbling experience of caring for people from every walk of life. From chained prisoners, end-stage AIDS patients, centenarian Memaws, and just about every race or religion you can imagine. You never know what someone is going through: pain, hunger, abuse, or isolation. The brave face may be your neighbor. Our life’s legacy is written in the hearts of the people we interact with, not the commas in our bank account. That’s what matters in the end.

- Heather

• Cherish every moment you have because you really never know when it could be your last. I see patients from all different walks of life and work some of them on the worst days of their life. Try to be kind to everyone because you never know what they have gone through or what they are going through. - Lynde

• The most memorable thing is that most times, it’s the little things that people need. For instance, someone who actively listens to their needs and concerns. To meet those needs to the best of our ability. It builds a great therapeutic relationship between provided and patient. - Kennetha

Would you choose this career path again?

• Honestly, there are many days I would respond “no” to this question, but when I stop and take the time to reflect on it, becoming a nurse has been one of my life’s best decisions. Overall, serving others from the position of a nurse is where I love to be. I love patient care, my co-workers who have become family, and making a difference for anyone and everyone I can. I even love the chaos that always encompasses healthcare. Every day brings a new challenge to overcome, but the reward makes it all worth it. Knowing my “yes” can have a positive impact on someone’s life by simply caring for them is powerful and priceless. - Brieann

• Some days I love my job, some days I really question myself. We see more sadness than happiness most days, especially in the ER. A lot of times we stabilize our patients and then they leave to a different unit so we rarely know the outcome of the patient. But the good days make it worth it and knowing that you made an impact on someone or their family keeps me going. Yes, I would choose this career again. - Lynde

What industry changes have you experienced, good and bad?

• My favorite industry change for the good has been EPIC (electronic health record). Healthcare has come a long way since the days of pen and paper, saving us lots of time and headaches. A bad experience (though this isn’t a change) is insurance companies. Health is often, if not all the time, at the mercy of insurance companies who don’t have physical contact with the patients during any part of their healthcare journey. - Brieann

• Covid has completely changed the care of nursing. I never thought that I would have worked during a pandemic and especially not being on the front lines. There is a huge staffing shortage in nursing for multiple reasons related to the pandemic that are still felt today. We need more nurses! Many have been burnt out and don’t want to stay in nursing, while others now recognize their value and have found employment elsewhere for higher pay. The field has become significantly more profitable and nurses in some areas are valued more because at the end of the day it is not an easy job. There are multiple days where we don’t get to sit down, eat and hold our bladders because something critical has just happened. - Lynde

• I’ve observed the profession change in regards to technology. This change is helping us to chart more proficiently and not spend so much time on documentation. The profession is continuously evolving for the betterment of our patient population. - Kennetha

We offer a place of rest and support for families of hospitalized patients. We know it’s difficult to travel back and forth to the hospital, so we are here to ease that burden.

Hometown

Grew up most of my life in Hamshire, TX