Prioritizing Compassionate Care

from Nursing For/um: Spring 2023

Change of Address

Karen E. Doyle, DNP ’20, MS ’91, BSN ’85

BY EMILY HALNON

Karen E. Doyle, DNP ’20, MS ’91, MBA, BSN ’85, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, was running shock trauma nursing at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) when the pandemic hit. Her job was already an intense one. She was the senior vice president of nursing and operations at UMMC’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, the nation’s only dedicated trauma facility, which treats 7,500 critically ill or severely injured patients every year. But she added to it, taking on a position as the primary incident commander for UMMC’s COVID-19 response.

“We had to make sure our staff stayed safe through the pandemic,” she says.

Doyle experienced the fear and stress that one would expect in such a high-stakes, high-pressure role –but she also loved it, calling it a “great privilege” to develop new policies and procedures for providing medical care through a pandemic. She loved it so much that she was inspired to pursue a new role, as senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at UMMC.

She’s been in this position since October 2021, and she’s still glowing with professional and personal joy for the work, where she’s accountable for a multimillion-dollar budget and 4,500 nurses across two hospitals, the Downtown and Midtown campuses. After 35 years in nursing, this new role is giving her the opportunity to draw from her decades of nursing experience to help UMMC offer the best possible patient care. Last fall, Doyle was awarded UMSON’s 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of her professional achievements.

She’s also integrating her own experience as a patient into her new role. Doyle has gone through treatment for breast cancer twice and says those experiences offered her invaluable insight into how to deliver compassionate care to patients.

“The things that matter the most to patients often have nothing to do with clinical experience or knowledge,” she says, things like how they are given bad news, what type of support systems are available, and how it feels to wear a backless robe in a waiting room or have difficult veins for endless IVs.

“We’re with the patients when they’re going through their hardest and scariest times,” she says.

Doyle adds that she puts a lot of thought into how to foster a culture of compassionate care so patients and their families feel comfortable and supported, always trying to make patient care decisions by imagining the patient is her own mother or father. And she loves recognizing nurses who go above and beyond to deliver compassionate care through monthly awards and regularly sharing kind notes from patients and their families. She recalls a nurse who kept a cell phone charged so the patient could stay in touch with family through COVID-19 visitor restrictions and a nurse who helped another patient pick out wigs after losing her hair during chemotherapy.

“There is no greater joy than being able to share a thank you from a grateful patient,” she says.

NCLEX Pizza Party

UMSON, May 18, 2022 u

AACN Policy Summit Washington, D.C., March 27, 2022