10 | MAY 2021 CELEBRATE NURSES
VanMeter Began Career IN THE NAVY
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CONTRIBUTOR: Maria Kirkpatrick
rom hanging onto a rope dangling from a helicopter to raising her daughter and making it through nursing school, Cindy VanMeter has led a busy life. VanMeter has been a nurse for seven years. Raised mostly in Albany, she always knew she would go into the medical field. After high school, VanMeter spent nine years in the US Navy, acting as a hospital corpsman with the Marines. When VanMeter was 5 years old, she began telling people she wanted to work in the medical field. “It’s always been my calling,” she said. “Ever since I was little, I just always liked to help people.” After getting out of the service, nursing was the most logical career choice so VanMeter could get back to doing what she loved to do so much in the military. Hospital corpsman is a craft of all trades. They do much of what nurses do in the civilian world, and more. These days she is studying 20 hours a week for her nurse practitioner’s license. She also works full-time as a nurse case manager at Lumina Hospice & Palliative Care. What makes it important to her, she said, is being able to see the change she makes in people’s lives. “Being able to help somebody and see that change physically that you are able to help them,” VanMeter said. “That’s not something easy to put into words.” When she left the Navy, she earned her certified nursing assistant license and worked her way through nursing school. She became a nurse case manager at New Horizons and then a floor care nurse at the Oregon Veterans’ Home in Lebanon. The last 18 months, VanMeter has been at Lumina,
PHOTO CREDIT: Kelly Lyons
providing palliative and hospice care to 12 to 14 patients. She is the go-between for doctor and patient, as well as between family and patient. “I help families through the hard time of losing their loved one, and am making people comfortable at the end of life,” she said. VanMeter said she is proud to be part of We Honor Veterans, a program focused on respectful inquiry, compassionate listening and grateful acknowledgment through which the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization collaborates with the Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize unique needs of American veterans. “Being able to thank those who went before me in the military and give them that special thanks that we do …,” she said. “It makes it warm and fuzzy.” Working full time, being a single mom, homeschooling with a 12-yearold, and doing her own studies is difficult. But she’s made it this far, and said she has a great daughter who is very helpful. She said she wouldn’t be where she is today without the support of her family. Her entire family lives within a 10-foot radius of each other and are there when needed. She said she also has found much support at Crowfoot Baptist Church in Lebanon. Through the church, she was able to go on a medical and missionary trip to the Philippines in 2019 to help people recovering from a tsunami. She worked with a team of five doctors and got to see how other countries’ medical teams care for patients. She helped with everything from appendicitis to working to teach sign language to a little girl who was deaf. “Watching her eyes light up when she got it was amazing,” VanMeter said. VanMeter was selected as the community choice honoree for Celebrate Nurses, the only nurse selected by popular vote.
