Johnston Now Honors: Outstanding Healthcare Professional offers personal touch to nursing

By Randy Capps

Catina Hartley grew up in Princeton, and as a preacher’s kid, she learned a bit about service and helping others.

She took those lessons and applied them to a 27-year career in nursing where she’s touched countless lives.

It’s that impact that has earned her the 2024 Johnston Now Honors Best Healthcare Professional Award.

“I've always loved to take care of people,” she said. “My grandmother took care of people in her home. So, I guess it’s kind of part of who I am.”

These days, she works for UNC Health Johnston.

“I'm the inpatient wound nurse,” she said. “I don't I don't actually work in the clinic itself. I work at the hospital. I only see patients that are hospitalized. 

“I go in and assess the wound, take pictures, measurements and then I consult with the doctor and place orders.”

She cites her work for the SECU Hospice House as some of her favorite times.

“(People used to say) ‘how in the world can you do that? Isn't it depressing,” she said. “And sometimes it is, especially when you get the younger patients. But when you can't fix it, there's no need to make them suffer. The best thing to do is give them the best quality of life they can have up until the end.”

It’s a sentiment shared by her boss there, and 2019 winner of this very award, Dr. Dennis Koffer.

“The image of us only doing death care is a very narrow perspective,” he said. “Very few of us, if any, remember our transition from where we were to life. But there were teams of people who collaborated to make sure that transition was as gentle as possible. Well, there’s another transition. We can’t change that. The transition is going to happen. Our commitment is to make sure that transition is as gentle as the first.”

Twenty-seven years is a long time in any field, and nursing has seen its share of changes during her career.

“Everything's different,” she said. “It's better, you know? Evidence-based research has made things better. But, yeah, things are a lot different. Computerized stuff, I mean. The charting is good as long as the computer is working. You know, back in the day when you were doing paper charting, you didn't have to worry about whether or not your computer worked. But, you know, all-in-all, patient care is better.

“The day you stop learning is the day you need to find another profession, because there’s a learning curve every day.”

In the spirit of that, she’s currently enrolled at Grand Canyon University, seeking her bachelor’s in nursing. Ironically, she and her younger daughter, Caitlyn, will both graduate from college next year. Her elder daughter, Alexis, has already done so, graduating from St. Andrews.

She’s also gone from having a father for a preacher to a brother, at Princeton Church of God of Prophecy.

“They've (all) been part of the journey,” she said. “It's a blessing. That's the one thing that I always pray for every morning. ‘Lord, help me to be a blessing to help someone today.’” 

Even patients that have given other nurses a hard time want to be helped, Hartley believes.

“I walk in the room, and the first thing you do is make eye contact,” she said. “You've got to make contact, you've got to say, ‘hey.’ And, a lot of times before I leave the room, I'll thank them. And I make sure they look at me when I say thank you. ‘Thank you for letting me take care of you.’” 

COVID was an especially challenging time for nurses, as one might imagine.

“It was tough,” she said. “I mean, it really made you rethink nursing. And the patients were pitiful. I can remember one man that I went in to see, he'd been there for two weeks and he … couldn't have visitors. 

“So all he saw was the few people that came into the room to take care of him. I did what I had to do. And I said, ‘can I get you anything?’ He said, ‘can't you please stay with me and talk?’ I said, ‘I wish that I could, but I've got other patients to see.’ That broke my heart, you know? That just broke my heart.”

For Hartley, it all comes back to helping people any way she can.

“It's rewarding, but challenging,” she said. “With nursing, there's so many options. You can be an OB nurse, you can be a wound nurse, a surgery nurse, I mean, there's just so many options. You just have to decide what you want to do. At the end of the day, it's rewarding to be able to help somebody.”

Thank you to One 80 Counseling for sponsoring this award.