Portrait of a Tender (#13) - Kim E. - Adult Acute Care

            “My mom was a nurse, so that gave me an appreciation for what the role was about and, at the same time, how hard it was on her.” Kim has been a nurse for 30 years, 29 of them given to UVA Health where she currently works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist on an adult acute care surgical unit.  Kim’s grandfather was a physician, so you could say that health care has been a bit of a family tradition.  Since childhood, Kim has been familiar with healthcare professions and what it takes to achieve some sense of balance between work and family.  Reflecting on the past couple of years, Kim says “I have always considered my flexibility a strength in my personal nursing practice, but the complexity of what nursing must adapt to during the pandemic has increased exponentially and challenged my ability to be flexible. Things were just changing so rapidly.”

          As a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Kim not only delivers direct patient care, but also serves as a consultant to frontline nurses. She simultaneously provides advanced nursing interventions and serves as a coach and support person for other nurses.  “I guess you could say I tend nurses as well as patients.”  The need for the role of coach has also increased dramatically through the pandemic as healthcare systems around the country have seen historic rates of nurse turnover, many leaving nursing altogether.  “We lost a lot of nurses through the pandemic and have hired a lot of newer, less experienced nurses.  I love these new nurses because they bring a freshness and burst of energy to the field, but I worry about their longevity as well because nursing is really hard work.”

           “The hardest part about working through the pandemic wasn’t caring for the patients, because that’s always hard work on an adult acute care unit.”  For Kim, the hardest part was the work of supporting her fellow nurses as they cared for patients through a maze of ever changing protocols, work flows, and restrictions. Patients were experiencing all the normal stresses of surgery and hospitalization along with the compounding effects of fear, isolation, loneliness, and despair.  “I became a sounding board for the nurses” as they struggled to meet the needs of patients who were separated from their families, acutely ill, and often in pain.  It was a colossal task and Kim felt her “emotional backpack” become heavier and heavier throughout the day as she attempted to absorb the struggles the nurses were sharing and lighten their loads a bit.  “By the end of the day,  I knew I had to take that backpack off when I walked through the door to my home.  I had to be intentional about it.”  Keeping in mind, the necessary work of self-care and work/life balance, so she could get up the next morning and don her backpack again.