Nurses - The Heart of Health Care

COMMITTED COMPASSIONATE CARING

Celebrating National Nurses Week 2019

Hospice nurse Barbie Rogers has enjoyed

STORIED CAREER

Helping people on their final journey is ‘one of the greatest honors’ DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer

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Barbie Rogers is the kind of nurse that you want when you take your last breath. That’s what she’s trained for. Rogers is a part-time hospice nurse who helps patients on what she calls their final journey. It’s one of the greatest honors she can receive.

Hospice care isn’t the only thing she’s good at, though. In her 35-plus years of nursing, Rogers has had a very storied career.

Originally from Massachusetts, Rogers started nursing school at San Diego State University when she was 24 years old, graduating with a degree at 28. Right after that, she moved to the Central Coast and immediately worked in the medical-surgical unit at a small hospital called Valley Community Hospital, which no longer exists.

Rogers isn’t sure what exactly inspired her to become a nurse.

She said she just always knew when she was little that she was going to become a nurse someday.

“I think I was lucky because I didn’t have to wonder in school and change majors and those kinds of things,” said Rogers, 62.

“In that sense it’s a calling, if you’re doing it because you feel

you can make a lot of money at it but don’t have a real interest in caring for people, it’s probably not a good fit.”

Shortly after moving to the Central Coast, Rogers gave birth to a daughter. Her obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Tad Callahan, opened a private birthing center and later offered her a job as a labor/delivery nurse and teaching some of his classes.

Rogers describes Dr. Callahan as a “wonderful” medical expert who still practices to this day.

After that, she worked for Santa Barbara County public health on Foster Road caring for patients who had tuberculosis.

She subsequently took a regional manager position, which she held for 17 years.

During that time, Rogers got a part-time teaching degree at Allan Hancock College, and taught EMT training. She eventually went to school at UC Davis to become a forensic examiner and landed a job conducting rape kits for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff ’s Office. She described is a difficult, but fascinating job.

If she had to do her career over, she’d choose to be a forensic examiner because it’s something nurses can become certified in, she said.

While Rogers was a manager with public health, her sister moved to Santa Maria with two children after her sister’s husPlease see ROGERS, Page A3

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Barbie Rogers, a palliative care nurse at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, is being honored during Nurses

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NURSES WEEK

| SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2019

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Dee Dee Solano, who works at Mission Hope Cancer Center in Santa Maria, is being honored during Nurses Week.

LEN WOOD, STAFF

Dee Dee Solano brings strength through hope to her patients ‘I treat my patients as if they were my family.’

DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer

Dee Dee Solano was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to Santa Maria when she was two years old. She was inspired to become a nurse after experiencing the interaction and care nurses gave to her grandfather.

Later in life, Solano began a ladder program into nursing. At first, she became a certified nursing assistant, then a licensed vocational nurse, but not without waiting three years in between.

Solano graduated from Allan Hancock College nursing school and became a registered nurse in 2014. Before nursing, she worked in some receptionist and administrative jobs, and was always a mom first, taking care of her two kids who are now approaching

young adulthood.

Following graduation, Solano was a home health care nurse before moving to the cardiac telemetry unit at Marian Regional Medical Center.

Now at age 38, Solano has worked for seven months at Mission Hope Cancer Center in Santa Maria where she assists patients with chemotherapy.

One of the challenges, Solano said, is managing the fear and helplessness she sees in some patients with cancer, which she said takes an emotional toll.

Two years ago, Solano said she had a young patient who died.

The patient’s mother told me that “you’re never supposed to bury your children.” It was a day she’ll never forget, Solano said, because she is also a mother.

There’s no real way to prepare for losing a patient until it happens, Solano said, and even then it’s difficult to handle.

Sometimes the patients don’t

have any family, and Solano said that the nurses are, by default, their family.

“I treat my patients as if they were my family,” Solano said.

“Some people don’t have family.

You’re all they have.

“It’s holding a hand while they’re scared. It’s reassuring them that they’re going to be OK.” Solano said that her best day as a nurse is every day, and that the best part of working at the center is the interaction with patients, which is why she moved to oncology. Solano describes the cancer center as a wonderful place to work and attributes that to the strength of the management and the teamwork.

She gives lots of credit to the nurses on the night shift, who spend lots of time away from family. Sometimes — often — trying to catch up on sleep during the day doesn’t work out, she said. She described working nights as “brutal,” and said she sympathizes

with nurses with young families.

Solano considers herself lucky to have an understanding family.

But sometimes, she added, being a nurse means that family and friends see her as the all-knowing medical professional.

“You’re family thinks you’re a doctor, a nurse practitioner or a surgeon,” she said.

There’s one experience she said, that isn’t related to nursing, but that impacted her life greatly. She was attending the Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017 when a gunman opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel and killed 58 concert-goers. Solano and her husband were close to the stage watching the country singer perform when her husband heard what sounded like firecrackers, but were actually gunshots, she said.

When people started getting shot, Solano said that’s when she knew something was wrong. Both she and her husband ran for their

lives and miraculously escaped the bullets. It’s an experience, she said, she rarely talks about in detail except with close family and friends.

Work gets stressful, Solano said, and as her outlet she maintains a strict exercise regimen. Her routine includes getting up at five or six in the morning and working out at the gym for at least one hour every day. Sometimes she’ll just walk around the neighborhood with another nurse who’s also her neighbor.

When she’s not working or exercising, Solano is spending quality time with family. She enjoys camping and loves playing corn hole.

Solano said she has never had doubts about her decision to become a nurse.

“Working at the cancer center, I used to think that I was giving to the patients,” Solano said, “but I’ve learned they’re actually giving to me.”

Deborah Masullo took Marilyn Pharis’ list to heart ‘If you don’t have doubts, I don’t think you’re a good nurse’ DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer

PETER KLEIN, CONTRIBUTOR

Deborah Masullo is being honored during Nurses Week.

Nursing is a second, or even a third career for Deborah Masullo, but while she’s been a registered nurse for only seven years, her time in medicine goes back to 1979.

Following completion of a regional occupational program in Southern California, she gained experience as an emergency medical technician, and in urgent care, physical therapy, internal medicine, OBGYN, and natural medicine.

It wasn’t until years later — after a second marriage and all of her kids had become adults — that she became a registered nurse. She started a nursing program at Golden West Community College in Huntington Beach and finished at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo after moving from Orange County to Grover Beach to take care of her mother, who suffered from lung cancer.

Masullo, 56, traces her interest in medicine to childhood. She was born in California, moved to Massachusetts as an infant, then moved back to Orange County when she was 10 years old.

As a child Masullo experienced a life-threatening bout of Guillian-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves. The syndrome developed, she said, as a reaction to a flu shot. The condition almost paralyzed her as a teenager — she lost control of her breathing, and she spent 10 months in a children’s hospital in Downey where she celebrated her 14th birthday.

Her experience came at a time when children still were getting polio, and she said she vividly remembers the iron lungs.

Masullo now works among a dedicated team of nurses in the telemetry unit at Marian Regional Medical Center.

She has experienced the death of a patient at least 30 times in the last six years, she said, but two stand out.

One patient, she recalls, knew he

was going to die and refused to don a bilevel positive airway pressure device to help him breathe. Masullo remembered the patient motioning “I love you” in sign language to his wife, then giving her a kiss before he died. The family was so touched by Masullo’s presence that they reach out to her each March on the anniversary of his death, she said.

Masullo also treated Marilyn Pharis, who died in August 2015 from a blood clot eight days after being severely beaten during a robbery at her Santa Maria home.

She remembered the day Pharis came to the hospital. She was barely recognizable, Masullo said. She also recalled the day Pharis died, and the effort her colleagues made to keep the clot from moving from her leg to her heart.

After Pharis’ death, her family found a list at her bedside which they copied for family, friends, and the two nurses who treated her, including Masullo. It was a simple list of 12 items Pharis had written down, which included things like “do a good deed” and “read a challenging book.” Masullo said she keeps a copy of the list on her iPhone and does her best to fulfill each goal.

Masullo’s life is not all about nursing, though. She enjoys riding motorcycles with her husband — her favorite bike is her Harley Davidson Softail Custom. She takes care of two border collies, and she has also considered going to school to be a physician’s assistant, but now is heavily considering becoming a travel nurse instead. Her sister is a travel nurse recruiter.

Masullo acknowledges that she has a challenging profession.

“If you don’t have doubts, I don’t think you’re a good nurse,” Masullo said.

The important thing to remember, she said, is to establish rapport with your doctors right away and to admit your mistakes.

An example, she said, is a restaurant she owned by the name of Doughboy’s Pizzeria, where she’d bring her colleagues, including the doctors, to make pizzas together in a team-building exercise. Although she sold the restaurant three years ago, she said she used it to make her 00 1 team stronger.

NURSES WEEK

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Sunday, May 5, 2019 | A3

‘Mama Delia’ makes family tradition personal Lompoc nurse supervisor has stayed the course DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

‌At age 64, Delia Espino is nearing retirement age. With 43 years of experience as a nurse, Espino has seen a lot in life, both personally and professionally.

Born in the Philippines, Espino hails from the province of Iloilo.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing and emigrated to the U.S. in 1982, settling in Lompoc with her husband, and finding work at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center.

Espino’s career in nursing is a family tradition. The long list of family members who are nurses include her mother, older sister, her daughter, son-in-law, and several cousins. Even her co-workers, which she considers her sons and daughters, are her family. They call her “Mama Delia.”

Although her path into nursing may have seemed pre-determined, that’s not to say there wasn’t a little inspiration. Espino believes that seed was planted at age 12, when her grandmother became ill and didn’t have the benefit of nursing care. Espino said there was a neighborhood doctor, but he wasn’t able to help her grandmother in time before she died.

Espino began her career as a medical-surgical nurse before moving to critical care. Now she’s a night shift supervisor, a role she’s held since the early 2000s.

But it wasn’t a smooth path.

In 1991, Espino’s daughter died from a congenital heart defect two months after birth and was buried in Lompoc. The experience affected her such that she didn’t properly grieve until a year later, she said, and job stress caught up with her.

In 1996, she took a five-year hiatus and went back to the Philippines for her husband’s work as an engineer. She came back to Lompoc in 2001. Shortly after moving back, she became a supervisor.

Several years ago, Espino was

LEN WOOD, STAFF‌

Delia Espino, a nurse supervisor at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center, is being honored during Nurses Week. diagnosed with breast cancer, but it was caught in the early stages. Espino didn’t have to undergo chemotherapy and instead fought the cancer off with radiation. Three times each week, for a solid month, she drove to Santa Barbara to receive 15 minutes of radiation therapy. She was declared free of cancer last September, and said she believes it was the power of collective prayer that helped heal her.

As a supervisor, Espino is there to support her staff and act as a resource. With any problem, she’s responsible for damage control and said patient complaints are part of the job. Nevertheless, she reminds her team to stay positive at the beginning

of each shift.

“I tell them no matter what we’re going to have a good night,” Espino said.

The best part of her job is mentoring new nurses, which she considers very rewarding, and encouraging nursing assistants and other medical workers to enter the profession.

The worst part is coping with stress and juggling work-life balance, she said. Early on in her career, although she never has to worry about it now, a patient sometimes experienced an emergency right before Espino clocked out of her shift and that would require her to tag along to Goleta or Santa Barbara. Once there, she would have no way

of getting back to Lompoc. This was back in the 1990s when there were no ride-sharing apps and even getting a taxicab was difficult.

Sometimes it would get so busy that she’d forget to eat or drink, and it took a physical and emotional toll on her body. The emotional toll of having patients die is also hard, she said.

While Espino never had doubts about becoming a nurse, she said that burnout is very real in the profession.

“In this profession you can’t be serious all the time,” she said, noting her sense of humor is strong.

In her free time Espino loves to dance, enjoys attending Zumba

classes, holding potlucks, and loves karaoke. She enjoys being a grandmother to her two granddaughters.

As Espino approaches retirement, she said she thinks about slowing down a little, maybe only working one day each week.

She sees her profession as moving towards more nurse autonomy, independence. “We have a voice and I want to see that more,” she said.

Her advice to nurses: A nurse needs to have patience and compassion, and have great time management. Also, take care of yourself because health is wealth, she added.

“Life is short, enjoy it while you can,” she said.

Celebrating our 28th Year!

Let our family take care of your family

JUST LIKE HOME LEN WOOD, STAFF‌

Barbie Rogers, a palliative care nurse at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, is being honored during Nurses Week.

Rogers From A1

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band was killed. She saw a newspaper advertisement for a hospice nursing position in San Luis Obispo and replied. She felt that was her true calling.

Now, she works with Dignity Health in care transitions — a telephonic program that’s free to patients. When a patient is diagnosed with a new condition, a referral is made electronically, and Rogers calls the patient to ask if she can work with them for up to 90 days weekly over the phone. She still provides hospice care, and she also does palliative care on a part-time basis, making home visits from Lompoc to Paso Robles.

The best part of the job is working directly with people and with patients, Rogers said, because that’s

where the real satisfaction comes from.

According to her colleagues, Rogers exudes a motherly aura.

“I wish she was my mother,” said colleague Ashley Hahn, a fellow Dignity Health employee who met Rogers 10 years ago.

The worst part of the job, Rogers said, is there never seems to be enough time.

“And of course, you’re working for a business,” Rogers said. “You have to be mindful of that and respect the boundaries of the business. Time is always a very precious commodity.”

Because time is so precious, Rogers now spends a lot of it traveling with her husband, who is in his 80s, and who she says is in great health. They’ve traveled all over the world in the last 10 years, including to Machu Picchu. Most recently, they spent time in Africa. Lately, she has considered becom-

ing a nurse on a cruise ship.

Rogers said she has never doubted her decision to become a nurse and has no regrets. Experiencing death regularly is something she actually embraces, and says it doesn’t affect her negatively. In fact, Rogers says she has been blessed to work in hospice.

For Rogers, hospice cemented the idea that she had the correct talents, skills, and make-up to be able to assist people who are about to die. For her, it’s a sacred space and incredible experience.

“Nobody’s getting out of here alive, that’s how I see it,” Rogers said. “It’s just that some people have the hourglass turned over and the sand is running out.

When that happens, I want to be respectful and not waste their time. There’s many people that are good at it, but I feel as if I was given the gift.”

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Janelle Minor, a nurse at Marian Regional Medical Center, is being honored during Nurses Week.

LEN WOOD STAFF‌

Janelle Minor found her niche,

she loves to help people DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

‌Janelle Minor wasn’t always a registered nurse. Like many of her colleagues, the profession came later in life.

Minor grew up near Des Moines, Iowa, where her family still resides, and moved to the Central Coast approximately 25 years ago. She was a fitness instructor and personal trainer for many years and gradually eased into the profession by taking night classes. She never had a full-time job until she became a nurse.

At first, according to Minor, her family and friends questioned her motivation to become a nurse, but they eventually accepted her decision. Her inspiration was simple, she said: She loves to help people.

Now middle-aged, Minor has been a nurse for eight years and works among several nurses in the cardiac telemetry unit at Marian Regional Medical Center. Minor also works for a local dermatologist.

Despite her fitness background, Minor said she finds the job more physically challenging than she expected. She usually gets up at 4:15 or 5:15 a.m. and works a 12-hour, sometimes 16hour shift several times a week, which many times includes lots of heavy lifting.

“It’s literally run, run, run,” Minor said, adding that sleep is crucial to maintaining professionalism.

There are no certified nursing assistants, she said, no aids, some licensed vocational nurses, and definitely no playing cards.

“It’s physically and mentally tough,” Minor said. “There’s lots of emotion. It’s hard because you carry that weight. There’s too much empathy and it’s hard to maintain professionalism.”

How does she cope? Exercise, of course. It’s not an uncommon sight to find Minor going for a power walk at night, wearing headphones to shut out the outside world. She talks with her peers, who are her support system, and spends special occasions with them.

The best parts of Minor’s job, she said, are meeting new people and spending time with her co-workers, which she described as rewarding.

One of the more difficult aspects, she said, is losing patients.

She said she has encountered many patients who have a DNR —

do not resuscitate — order, meaning they do not wish to be revived in the event they lose vital signs.

The hardest part for her is seeing the family suffering, she said, but added she understands that her job is to be strong for them.

Another challenge is handling combative patients, she said.

Nurses at Marian, including Minor, receive training in workplace violence, which many times involves a patient with dementia or one under the influence of drugs.

It’s part of the job, she said.

Minor said she hasn’t experienced any combative patients herself, although some of her co-workers have. When it happens, a call goes out as a “code gray” to alert staff. Usually, security is called at the first sign of violence, she said.

There are also patients who are

mean, but she doesn’t let them get to her, she said. It’s all about personality, she said.

What’s she known for, according to colleagues like Deborah Masullo, is her ability to stay positive and have fun on the job.

As a nurse, Minor said she is there to support her colleagues as well as be the “heart and soul” of the patient.

Minor acknowledges that there’s a lot of turnover in her profession because it’s so demanding, but adds that there are many opportunities to find the right fit. As a nursing student, she once worked a rotation at Atascadero State Hospital, an all-male, maximum-security facility, that houses mentally ill convicts.

“There’s a niche for everyone,” Minor said.

Nurse Stephanie was inspired at an early age Long road lead to experience, position at Marian Regional Medical Center DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

‌In her elementary school years, Stephanie Vega tagged along with her mother on the weekends to her hospital administration job in Glendale. That was Vega’s first exposure to the medical field.

Vega’s true inspiration for her nursing career came as a young teenager, she just didn’t quite know it at the time.

When Vega was a freshman in high school, her little sister was born with health problems and spent time in intensive care.

When her sister came home, she had loads of medical equipment such as a feeding pump and an oxygen monitor.

Vega said she wasn’t scared, but just didn’t know what to do.

Instead, Vega said, she helped her mom take care of her brother while a home health nurse took care of her sister.

Vega doesn’t remember the nurse’s name, but recalls the woman was in her 50s and was a day-shift nurse. One day, the nurse showed Vega how to take care of her sister.

She recalled the nurse telling her: “You’re going to do everything on your own and I’m going to watch.”

“She didn’t give me a choice and I was OK with that,” Vega said.

“That was the driving force.”

At 39 years old, Vega is now a nurse manager in the telemetry unit at Marian Regional Medical Center. It wasn’t a direct path.

Originally from La Crescenta, near Pasadena, Vega graduated from CSU Northridge with a degree in biology in 2003.

Between graduating college and nursing school, Vega spent time

LEN WOOD STAFF‌

Stephanie Vega, a nurse at Marian Regional Medical Center, is being honored during Nurses Week. at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Center in Los Angeles. While she gained valuable experience, Vega described the experience as sad because of the veterans who’d sit and wait for hours just to get an appointment.

Vega attended nursing school at Glendale Community College, graduating in December 2006.

Vega says she got lucky to get in while many are put on wait lists.

She attributes her acceptance to the nursing program to her time with the veterans’ administration.

Following graduation, Vega immediately got a job at Marian Regional Medical Center. Looking for a change, she and her husband

packed up their homestead in the San Fernando Valley and moved to Lompoc, where she resides today.

Her husband’s job at Trader Joe’s made it easy for him to transfer, she said. She had also worked at the grocery chain, juggling school and volunteering at the same time.

Vega was attracted to Marian’s nurse graduate program, which included a cardiac catheterization lab, and believed it would give her the opportunity to grow. She quickly ascended to the role of a charge nurse, which is essentially the nurse in charge of a shift.

In January 2019, Vega celebrated 12 years as a nurse, all of which have been spent at Marian.

During that time, Vega gave birth to her four children, including a set of twins. She once aspired to become a nurse on a cruise ship, but said the birth of her first child put that dream on hold — at least for now.

In her current role, Vega is a supervisor but her duties also include conducting evaluations, monitoring compliance, mentoring new staff, and calling equipment repair orders. She runs special projects such as a skills lab, an annual requirement, which is like a refresher course that includes “high-risk, low-use” procedures that staff needs to know, she said.

She also tracks “spirit grams,”

or little awards of recognition which nurses earn for each act of going above and beyond helping their co-workers or caring for patients. Earning enough spirit grams can either equal silver or gold hearts, with which nurses decorate their badges.

It’s just one way of building camaraderie among her team, Vega said. Her nurses pull together for all events, whether it’s a birth, a death, or celebrating a marriage.

When a baby is born, the nurses throw a diaper party; when someone dies, nurses bring food; when someone gets married, they collect money for the newlyweds.

Vega said she is driven to help her staff succeed by sharing her knowledge and experience and helping new nurses connect the dots. Nurse Daisy Contreras, a friend and colleague of seven years, described Vega as “authentic.”

“She’s just very experienced and caring in a real way,” Contreras said. “She genuinely cares about her patients.”

Vega said she relishes the busy shifts. Recently, she had a shift that she described as “ridiculously” short of nurses. Despite the potential for an extremely difficult and demanding shift, Vega said all of her team pulled through without complaining.

As a reward, she bought them all lunch.

Outside of nursing, Vega is busy taking care of her children and basically hosting other kids in the neighborhood at her home.

She calls them “kid parties.” Vega loves to garden although, she said, she can’t grow anything.

Her future consists of staying at Marian while studying towards her progressive care nursing certification. Her advice to other nurses?

“Don’t be afraid,” she said, “to try something, to ask about something — which is huge. I can tell if someone doesn’t get it. And don’t 00 1 be afraid to be wrong.”

timeline of

NURSING AT ALLAN HANCOCK COLLEGE

The history of organized nursing in the United States traces back to the early 1900s. Allan Hancock College began its nursing training in the 1950s with the nursing assistant program. Since then, the advancements of the Hancock nursing program have aligned with national nursing trends, as well as its partnerships with various healthcare entities, most notably, Marian Regional Medical Center. This timeline depicts some of the key dates in the history of nursing at Allan Hancock College.

1950s

ALLAN HANCOCK COLLEGE begins its nursing training with the nursing assistant program.

1964

The Nurse Training Act of 1964 transformed the education of nursing, moving the locale from hospitals to universities and community colleges like Allan Hancock College.

1967

Hancock adds dental assisting, licensed vocational nursing, and medical assisting to its programs.

1989

The Board of Registered Nursing grants approval to open the RN program at Hancock.

A collaboration with Cuesta College’s existing program, this partnership allows the program to be up and running in a year vs. the 4-5 years it usually requires to develop an RN program.

It was the first collaboration of its kind in the nation.

ANN GRANT, Cuesta College dean of instruction BARBARA HORNER, AHC nursing program director

1990

Five area hospitals pledge substantial support to the college to support the new LVN-RN ladder training program.

GARY EDELBROCK, AHC Superintendent/President CHUCK COVA, Marian Medical Center CEO

2001

1991

Thirty LVN students accepted into the new LVN-RN transition program.

Forty students, 10 more than the inaugural year of RN training at Hancock, enroll in the LVN-RN program.

2007

Hancock begins offering RN and LVN programs concurrently by accepting students annually and graduating RNs every year.

A computer-driven, full-sized, life-like mannequin nicknamed Pat is purchased by the college through a grant and Measure I funds to simulate real-life emergency situations and give students hands-on patient practice.

2008

Hancock’s nursing program moves from the South Campus to the new M building on the main campus, offering new state-of-the-art facilities and labs.

2018

Hancock’s long-time partnership with Marian Regional Medical Center was celebrated with the dedication of the college’s building M as the Health, Science & Mathematics building, in recognition of Marian Regional Medical Center’s nearly three decades of financial support to the college’s nursing program.

In December, Allan Hancock College held its annual nursing program graduation ceremony. A total of 62 students graduated, with 28 becoming licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and 34 becoming registered nurses (RNs). Twenty-six of the LVNs entered the college’s RN program in spring 2019.

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For information about the Allan Hancock College nursing programs, visit www.hancockcollege.edu/nursing or call 1-805-922-6966 ext. 3384

NURSES WEEK

A6 | Sunday, May 5, 2019

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LEN WOOD STAFF‌

Wendy Miles, a nurse at Marian Extended Care, is being honored during Nurses Week.

WENDY MILES BRINGS

PASSION,

EXPERIENCE TO NURSING CAREER

A little kindness makes a bad day go away DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

‌As with all professions, nurses have good and bad days. For Marian Regional Medical Center extended care nurse Wendy Miles, one of the worst came in January 2011 when she was out for a motorcycle ride with her then-fiance.

They had stopped for pancakes at Ellen’s Danish Pancake House

in Buellton, and while they were dining, her fiance suffered a massive heart attack. Miles suddenly found herself giving CPR to her fiance in the middle of the restaurant. An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer who was sitting at the next table helped Miles, and her fiance survived.

Miles attributes her life-saving skills to being a nurse, something she’s had a passion for since she was about five years old.

At age 50, she doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Miles was born and raised in Santa Maria and her

experience as a nurse includes two stints working at Marian Regional Medical Center. In between, Miles worked in the Bay Area for three years before returning to Santa Maria, where she has worked as a wounded care nurse in extended care for the last five years.

Miles has been a nurse for 19 years, but worked in health care for 25 years. She was a certified nursing assistant prior to becoming a nurse and is currently a licensed vocational nurse (LVN), but didn’t go through the traditional LVN program.

She learned by watching and doing, which allowed her to challenge her boards — which means she went from gaining experience to taking her test. According to Miles, she took the test at a computer terminal. The test ends when enough questions are answered to pass the exam or fail it, although the test taker never knows until later. Miles passed her test the first time.

As a wounded care nurse, Miles said she sees a lot of severe injuries but isn’t deterred by any of it.

The passion for her career goes deep. Some nurses work holidays, some take them off to spend with friends and family. She gave them up long ago, she said, once showing up to work with a broken leg because she felt guilty for calling in sick.

“I couldn’t do patient care for six weeks and did administrative duty,” she said.

She has a tendency to pick apart TV medical shows, stating that they often get many things wrong.

Even when she’s not working, Miles said she’s somewhat of a neighborhood nurse and a resource for medical knowledge.

Miles often sees dozens of patients each day. There is hardly any down time and she’s adamant that neither she or any of her colleagues play cards — a reference to a comment made recently by Washington State Senator Maureen Walsh.

“What a clueless individual,” Miles said, adding that she learned that the senator’s mother

was a nurse. “How can she disrespect her mother like that?” she asked.

Miles had just finished an 11hour shift that was only supposed to last eight as she talked about her life and career, something she said is common.

What frustrates her more than anything is time constraints on the job and not being able to give every patient the time she would like to.

Nursing is trending towards more documentation, she said with some frustration, although she understands the need for it.

Patient death is a part of the job, Miles said. Her first experience came when she was a CNA. “You never forget your first death,” she said. “It’s always devastating no matter how expected. It still hits you.”

Sometimes, Miles said, all it takes is a little kindness for a bad day to go away.

Miles remembers a patient with multiple wounds who told her: “I appreciate you.” Just like that, she said, her bad day disappeared. She said she has never had a patient unhappy to see her.

Off duty, she likes riding motorcycles with her husband, spending time with her many dogs and cats, and going to Bingo with friends, which she describes as her support system.

Miles said she is going to work as long as she can as a nurse.

“I’m going to work until I’m old and gray,” Miles said. “I’m going to ride my scooter into work.”

Elizabeth Pico dedicated to making a difference ‘Nursing is not for everyone. It takes skill, dedication, and commitment.’

DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

Elizabeth Pico recalled the ‌ reason that she became a nurse — years ago, while living in Guadalupe, she cared for her grandfather who had suffered a stroke.

Then in 1997, Pico graduated from a certified nursing assistant program. Years later, she became a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) in 2004. She did wound care for two years as an LVN, then attended nursing school at Allan Hancock College. While in school, she had a 4-year-old daughter, and now has four children.

She couldn’t have done it without the support of her husband, she said.

“I wanted it, I wanted it bad,” Pico said about getting through school. “Nursing is not for everyone. It takes skill, dedication, and commitment.”

At age 40, with 22 years of working with Dignity Health under her belt, Pico is now a nursing manager specifically focused on implementing regulations and improvements. She works with a lot of nursing students and new nurses, and describes being a nurse manager as a “culture change.”

In her role, she said, she constantly finds herself in the books

LEN WOOD STAFF‌

Elizabeth Pico, a nurse at Marian Extended Care, is being honored during Nurses Week. doing research, looking up procedures, or terminology.

She deals with a lot of politics, too, which is challenging at times, she said. New technology is also challenging when it’s brought into the mix.

Some of the things not talked about in nursing are the intimate details, she said, and seeing a patient in their most vulnerable state.

“That’s what makes us proud to do what we do,” she said. “The realism of the job.”

Conversely, Pico said, taking care of people in their saddest state is also the worst part of the job.

One of the challenges, she said, is educating people who don’t care. There are some things that just can’t be taught in nursing, she said, like compassion.

Her most difficult day, she said, came when she had two young patients die in one shift. To deal with such situations, Pico said she has learned to separate herself professionally while having

empathy.

One of her best days came when a patient sent her a colored portrait, which she still has.

“Those are the moments that make you proud of what you do,” Pico said.

Another time, she had an elderly female patient who was in comfort care. The patient had three sisters who asked Pico if they could stay the night in the patient’s room. Pico agreed, likening it to a slumber party. Days later, the patient died but the sis-

ters haven’t forgotten what Pico did for them.

“It was like a reflection of me and my sisters,” Pico said.

As a nurse educator, she gets thank yous all the time and it’s always a good feeling, she said.

Pico doesn’t deal with patients as much, but acknowledges that she contributes to the cause by training new staff. Essentially, she acts as a mentor.

When she gets a chance, she’ll travel to Arizona or go to Disneyland. She and her family, who have supported her from the get-go, are annual pass-holders.

Pico’s friend, Delia Salutan, calls her an “unsung hero.”

“She’s a Type A times ten,” said Salutan, who came up with Pico as a certified nursing assistant years ago. “She’s what nurses should be. She doesn’t realize she’s amazing.”

She always tells nurses to never forget why they became a nurse.

The reason, according to Pico: It’s important for their lives. Nursing is a career of choice, she added.

“I think no matter what, don’t ever forget where you came from,” she said.

It’s patient care that drives her as an educator, she said, adding she never expects things in return.

The only doubts she has are the ones about herself, Pico said. Is she doing a good job? Is she making a difference?

“At the end of the day,” Pico said, “It’s all about patient care.

At the end of every day, I ask myself if I made a difference in 00 1 someone’s life.”

NURSES WEEK

LEE CENTRAL COAST NEWSPAPERS

Sunday, May 5, 2019 | A7

Lannaya Smith is the force

behind the nursing team at Lompoc Health ‘We see each other more than we see our families sometimes.’

DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

‌The U.S. Air Force didn’t inspire Lannaya Smith to be a nurse, but in many ways it guided her. Originally from Riverside, Smith describes herself as an “Air Force brat,” who moved with her family from Hawaii to Texas depending on where her father was stationed.

Smith came to Lompoc when she was 18. She took nursing school prerequisite courses at Allan Hancock College and volunteered at the Vandenberg Air Force Base hospital. While there, Smith met the mother of a patient who was a nurse and a mentor.

Now, the cheery 42-yearold Smith is a nurse manager at Lompoc Health, a clinic on N. H Street. She has her own office with a bookshelf filled with reference guides and a desk piled with folders and stacks of paper — a typical backdrop for someone in her position.

It may have been a predetermined path for Smith, although it wasn’t a direct one. There was lots of moving around and crazy work hours.

“I always knew I was going to be in nursing,” Smith said.

The inspiring moment, Smith recalled, came when she was 12 years old after she was hospitalized at Lackland Air Force Base for hypocalcemia, a condition in which the calcium in the blood is below normal.

When it came time apply to nursing school, Smith was faced with the possibility of waiting years to get in. Smith made the move back to a place she once called home, Wichita Falls, Texas, where she attended Midwestern State University.

Smith knew she wanted to be a nurse, but more specifically knew she wanted to get into pediatrics.

In the early 2000s, she landed her first job on the pediatric/adult overflow floor at Marian Regional Medical Center, where she got a little experience with everything.

After that, she worked in the medical-surgical unit. She then took a job as a pediatric nurse at Cottage

LEN WOOD, STAFF‌

Lannaya Smith, a nurse at the Lompoc Health — North H Center operated by the Lompoc Valley Medical Center, is being honored during Nurses Week.

Hospital in Santa Barbara, where she rotated night and day shifts.

It was a “wonderful experience,” Smith said, but added that the hours and the commute were grueling. The experience, she said, has given her a lot of respect for nurses who manage night shifts.

Once more, Smith went back to Texas where she took a travel nurse assignment at a children’s hospital.

And once again, she made her way back to the pediatric unit at Marian, where she was a part of the pediatric unit practice council, whose members helped children staying at the hospital for extended periods of time have a

better experience.

When Smith got her job at Lompoc Health, it was owned by Sansum. The company transitioned to a new owner in December 2018 when Lompoc Valley Medical Center bought the clinic where Smith works.

The transition was challenging for the clinic’s staff and uprooted their workflow, Smith said, but she received praise for making it seamless.

“She led the transition with a smile and confidence and led the calming of all the staff,” said Yvette Cope, who is Smith’s supervisor at the clinic. “She fit in on day one.”

In her role at Lompoc Health, Smith said she works on the “back end” of the nursing staff, acting as a resource for her team of nurses.

In her position, she’s in charge of about two dozen nurses, who she knows are making sacrifices. She calls them her work family.

“We see each other more than we see our families sometimes,” Smith said. “It’s hard to say good night to them over the phone.”

As a leader and a resource, Smith said she strives to be the person that “fixes it all,” but it’s not easy.

Another tough part of her job, she said, is working with the emotional impact when a patient

passes away.

Knowing the demands of the profession, Smith encourages other nurses to have a life outside of their jobs. Burnout is a real possibility, she said.

As for Smith, she finds relaxation with friends and family around a fire pit. Road trips help clear her head, too.

In the future, Smith hopes to earn her master’s degree. Meanwhile, she’s busy leading and making sure patients are happy.

“I just like to talk with the patient when they’re here in person,” Smith said. “I want that eye-toeye and I want them to be able to feel like they’re being heard.”

Nurse Mae Lagua inspired by her mother, grandfather ‘When I get free time, I try to sit with my patients and get to know them and their families.’

DAVID MINSKY

Contributing Writer‌

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‌For some families, nursing goes back generations. In others, the inspiration comes at a young age as a result of a sick family member. It’s no different for Mae Lagua, who found her calling because of her mother, who has been a nurse for three decades and is now a shift coordinator at Marian Extended Care.

At 30 years old, Lagua has been a registered nurse for two years and was a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) for eight years before that. She’s originally from Santa Maria. In fact, she was born at Marian Regional Medical Center, where she works now.

She also has lots of friends in the medical field, including x-ray technicians and at least one nurse. Her boyfriend just finished nursing school as well.

Lagua’s inspiration grew towards the end of high school, she said, as she watched the positive interactions between the nurses and her grandfather who was battling cancer.

In high school, she also worked at a group home for developmentally disabled adults.

Lagua said she was in the first LVN class at Santa Barbara Business College, but she moved to Orange County for nursing school. Lagua credits support from family, who have been by her side throughout the entire process, for her success.

Lagua started working in the geriatric unit at Marian. It was a very rewarding experience for her, she said, because she got to meet many of the families.

Now, Lagua is a medical-surgical nurse and works three, 12-

FRANK COWAN, CONTRIBUTOR‌

Mae Lagua, a medical/surgical nurse at Marian Regional Medical Center, is being honored during Nurses Week. hour shifts per week. The hours for each shift increased as Lagua went from LVN to RN. At first, she said, it was difficult to adjust but she grew accustomed to the new hours. She chose the unit, she said, because it’s a good learning experience for new nurses start-

ing out.

“You get to see a little bit of everything,” she said.

Being a nurse is very rewarding, Lagua said. Knowing that the hospital can be a very scary place, Lagua enjoys helping patients leave.

One challenge of the job is the patient load, she said. California law mandates a maximum of five patients for each nurse for most hospital units. In intensive care units, the ratio is one nurse for every two patients.

According to Lagua, commu-

nication is key and being on the same page with patients and other nurses is crucial. To help maintain that openness, a comment box is available for anyone to leave a suggestion.

Like football players, Lagua says nurses “huddle” with their colleagues at the beginning of her shift. In these moments, they coordinate their efforts, who’s covering which patient, and make back-up plans.

“When I get free time, I try to sit with my patients and get to know them and their families,” Lagua said.

Lagua said that it’s hard not to get attached to some of the patients, and when a patient dies she has a process for keeping her focus: stay strong for the families. Her kind, but reserved demeanor reinforce her stoic philosophy. There’s also an interdisciplinary team that includes doctors and chaplains who are present to help.

In an email, friend Gladys Ramirez wrote that Lagua is “compassionate, very friendly and [responsible].”

Each day is a rewarding experience, Lagua said, adding that it’s the little things, like a smile or a patient holding your hand, that can make you feel good and make a rough shift seem not-so-rough.

She’s currently working on getting her bachelor’s degree, which she is halfway though in online courses. Eventually, she wants to get her master’s degree.

Out in the real world, you’ll catch Lagua snowboarding or sunbathing at the beach. She has a Shiba Inu dog, which is the breed of dog known for the “doge” meme.

As for the future, Lagua wants to be a chemotherapy nurse, which she hopes to become at Marian.

Her advice to new nurses: it can be overwhelming when you get on the floor and it’s important to remind yourself that it takes time to perfect skills. And don’t be afraid to ask questions or for help.

Nurses only need a moment to improve a life forever.

Nursing takes time, a lot of time. The paperwork, the hours, the commitment. And as a nurse, you take the time to get it right.

Grabbing an extra minute to hold a child’s hand. Calming a worried family. Encouraging your team members for a job well done.

All the small and big things you do add up to being an amazing nurse. We believe there’s power in it. We know there’s grace in it.

And there is humankindness within all of it. Thanks for all you do.

Happy Nurses Week

Marian Regional Medical Center | Arroyo Grande Community Hospital | French Hospital Medical Center | Pacific Central Coast Health Centers

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