Amy Dale

DALE LOVES

INTENSITY

OF ICU in the moment they need someone, she said it can get overwhelming. supportive of each other and encouraging to those new in the field. PHOTO CREDIT: Kelly Lyons “Sometimes you just have to take a deep Dale is able to remain composed and calm breath,” she said. “It can be overwhelming and on the job, and decompresses at home, in

CONTRIBUTOR: Maria Kirkpatrick that point in her life. you get compassion fatigue. You have to be able her garden or cooking. Her husband is a “In your young 20s, you really don’t know to turn it off and you have to care for yourself.” physician, and they are able to rely on one

Not all nurses graduate from high what you want to do in life,” she said. ICU nurses can easily burn out. Dale has another and talk out their day. She has two school knowing they will go into She moved to Wyoming for a few years and been a mentor, and encourages those who nearly adult children who are great people the profession. Amy Dale took waitressed, which she really enjoyed. have an interest to pursue the career if it is to spend time with, she said, and she loves the long way to get there and In her 30s, she returned to Corvallis, their passion. She said nurses today are very to spend time outdoors. tried a few careers in between, her hometown, and went to Linn-Benton but now she is one of the longest- Community College to become a registered lasting nurses in the intensive care unit at nurse. Her first job required her to relocate

Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center to Las Vegas but she eventually returned in Corvallis. Dale has been a nurse since 1993 and to Oregon. By then, she was 38 and had a 1-year-old child. Chemeketa Salutes Nurses: worked in Samarian’s ICU since 1996. “I’m probably one of the longest hired in She decided it was time to settle down and to obtain her bachelor’s degree of science The Heart of Health Care

ICU (besides) in nursing, maybe one or two other nurses,” she “Sometimes you just a four-year program for students who We are especially proud of our nursing alumni.said. “I always liked working with people,” have to take a deep seek to become a registered nurse. She enrolled at You can follow in their footsteps. she said. “I had an experience where the breath.” Oregon Health & Science University. For more information, visit: nurse was It was a great go.chemeketa.edu/nursing really important to me and I was really scared. decision and

She was with me and helped me through a she is very flattered to be recognized with procedure. That sparked my interest to be a this award for simply doing what she loves. nurse: that I could help people in moments In critical care, Dale gets “dialed in” to where they are scared and I could be there her job. She has close relationships with for them. That’s what drew me.” physicians and really gets to immerse herself

Dale was 21 years old and had just in the illnesses patients have. graduated from Lewis & Clark College with “(ICU) is a much more detailed look at a degree in psychology when she had that what’s going on with the patient than when experience. She briefly went back to school, you have more patients who aren’t quite as trying to find her way, and thought about sick,” she said. “These are usually the sickest becoming a teacher. She took courses at patients and it’s a crisis moment for the

Oregon State University for teaching and patients and the family. I try to be there with decided maybe that really wasn’t for her. the patient and for the family and connect.”

Then she went to nursing school for a While she likes the intensity of her job and couple terms and decided she just wasn’t at loves working with people, and being there