Nursing: A Commitment And A Love

By Nancy K. Crevier

The more than 2.9 million nurses in the United States, of which only six percent are men, provide a vast array of care to patients. Nurses impact lives from the first breath drawn to the last.

It is a career that draws a special caliber of person, and several of those people live and work in Newtown.

Margee Keegan has been in health care for 40 years. “There was really no ‘magic moment’ for me, so far as choosing nursing as a career,” said Ms Keegan, “but it was just a natural thing for me to care for others.”

When she turned 18, Ms Keegan became a nurses’ aide and attended Norwalk Community College, where she received her registered nurse degree. “When I was just 8 years old, my brother developed diabetes and I learned from the visiting nurse how to give him his injections, in case my mother wasn’t around. My parents always encouraged us to learn a skill, too, and nursing seemed a good fit. It has been a wonderful career.”

She has been an infection prevention nurse at St Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport for the past 18 years, but one of her early stints in nursing brought her to Newtown as a nursing student at Fairfield State Hospital.

“I was on the men’s ward,” recalled Ms Keegan. “There were men just walking in circles and talking to themselves. It wasn’t a dangerous unit that I was on, but it was quite an experience. I learned a lot.”

Learning a lot is an ongoing activity for most nurses. For many of the nurses in America, training goes far beyond the initial two or four years of schooling they first receive. According to 2004 data from the Center for Nursing Advocacy, 380,000 nurses have received master’s or doctoral degrees; 240,000 nurses are advanced practice nurses; and 70,000 have received training to become clinical nurse specialists. There were 140,000 nurse practitioners in the United States in 2004 and 14,000 nurse midwives. Nurses specialize in hospice care, surgery, emergency care, and obstetrics. They provide health education to communities and care for the elderly and infirm.

As an infection prevention nurse, Ms Keegan must identify risk for infection and try to prevent infection within the health care environment, track data on infections, work with patients and families at risk, and provide education in the community. She must constantly stay on top of new technology, which in 40 years has seen many advances. “There is always something new to learn,” she said.

She has seen changes other than technological advances, as well. “The biggest change is that since women have a lot more opportunities now, I see fewer and fewer people who plan to go into nursing. I see a lot of high school student groups every year and talk to them. The last couple of years, I have not had a single person say they planned to go into nursing as a career,” Ms Keegan said.

Her observations are accurate as indicated by the Center for Nursing Advocacy. By the year 2010, the United States will be short 275,000 nurses and by 2012, increased care demands and retirement of nurses will create a need for 236,000 new nurses each year.

“There is a shortage of nursing teachers, is the problem,” Ms Keegan said. “More kids apply to the nursing programs than can be accommodated, and that is because teaching just does not pay well compared to other nursing opportunities, I think.”

The complexity of nursing care and realization of how much personal care is involved may be off-putting to those considering a health career, she said, but for herself, being a nurse has been very gratifying.

“I can’t believe it has been 40 years. I would do it over again in a heartbeat,” she said.

As an associate professor of nursing at Fairfield University for the last seven years, Suzanne Campbell is also concerned about the prospect of a nursing shortage. It is not for a lack of interest on the parts of students, though, said Dr Campbell, who received her PhD in nursing from the University of Rhode Island in 1996 and was licensed as a nurse practitioner in 1998. “I have been seeing older students in my classes lately, people who are 30, 40, or even 50 years old. But we’re turning away thousands of students because of a lack of faculty. I’m worried about the future of nursing. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I want to know that there will be nurses to take over my position when I retire,” Dr Campbell said.

There are several reasons baccalaureate programs of nursing are short on instructors, said Dr Campbell, including pay that is less than can be earned in a hospital, private nursing setting, or teaching at a community college.

“It is easier for community colleges to hire and pay nurses with master’s degrees better than state or private four-year universities because many of [the community colleges] receive grants that help cover those costs,” she explained. Other prospective instructors are put off by what they consider extensive hours of instructing.

“It’s true that we not only lecture, but spend shifts with students in the hospitals, but I feel that in academia I do have the best of all worlds,” said Dr Campbell. “I teach the nursing care of women and childbearing families course at Fairfield University as well as a health care delivery system class, so I love that I get to work with the new parents, I get to teach, I get to be with students who are learning, and I get to be with doctors and nurses.”

There is also a sense that she has more flexibility in her hours than does a nurse in a hospital situation, said Dr Campbell. “For example, should I get snowed in here in Newtown, I can e-mail my students assignments from home. When you know someone is counting on you to relieve their shift or you are waiting for someone to come into the hospital to relieve you, it’s not so easy.”

Not only is Dr Campbell an associate professor of nursing and an advanced practice registered nurse, but she is also a women’s health nurse practitioner, a member of the International Board of Certified Lactation Consultants, and a board member of the International Lactation Consultants Association. She has always focused on women’s health since deciding as an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut that she wanted to be in the field of nursing.

“Everyone thinks that you go into nursing because you couldn’t be a doctor, but you need all of those same science courses to be a nurse [that are required to become a doctor]. It’s hard, but nursing is intellectually stimulating, too,” Dr Campbell pointed out.

Her enthusiasm for nursing after a career that has included not only teaching but hands-on experience at New Milford and Danbury Hospitals and the University of Connecticut Health Center is palpable. “In nursing, you are with people at some of the most vulnerable times of their lives. And I love it when I see those ‘I get it’ moments with my students,” she said.

It is also the feeling that she is helping women and families become more whole that completes the circle for Dr Campbell. “I’ll always be a nurse first. For me, it’s saving the world one baby and one mother at a time.”

Care For Those In Distress

At the other end of life’s spectrum is the care of the elderly. Caring for the elderly is a niche that Jane Landgrebe fell into by chance. She came to America from England as a young woman for what she thought would be a one year “look around,” fell in love, married, and stayed here. “I had always thought of myself as a people person. I wanted to take care of people and help them in distress. When my last of four children was in kindergarten, I decided I wanted to enter the LPN program.”

When she received her LPN degree 21 years ago from Henry Abbot Technical School in Danbury, she hoped to get into a surgical care position. “There was nothing open in the area hospitals at the time, though,” recalled Ms Landgrebe. “Ashlar was just down the street from where we lived, so I took a walk down there, they hired me, and I have been there ever since.”

She suspects that the shortage of nurses is fueled by a fear of burnout. Expectations of completing paperwork perfectly and performing other nursing duties to perfection create stress for those in this occupation, said Ms Landgrebe. Many nurses do not get the recognition or support that they need and other trained nurses may opt for jobs in business or administration to avoid these stresses and for the better pay offered in private settings.

As a nurse for 18 years in Ashlar and for the last two and a half years in Lockwood Lodge, she has had the opportunity to be with people at one of the more difficult stages of life. “It’s a privilege to work with the residents at Ashlar and Lockwood. It is a privilege to be entrusted with these patients, to be with them when they are dying, and to be there to comfort the families, as well. I love working with people. It has great rewards,” Ms Landgrebe said.

Part Of The Bigger Picture

Her sentiment is echoed by Cindy Vacaro, a 26-year nursing veteran. Ms Vacaro graduated in 1981 from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing. “I always wanted to be a nurse from way, way back,” she said. “I was always interested in the way the body works and taking care of others.”

She began her career in the St Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, caring for chronically ill patients, and then joined the Danbury Visiting Nurses. “I was actually the Newtown visiting nurse for three years. My office was in town hall.”

She loved her work as a visiting nurse, but the turning point in her career occurred when she was a patient at Danbury Hospital for the birth of her first child, Alexa. “The birth experience was so positive for me,” Ms Vacaro said. She applied for a job in the Family Birth Center and began working there when her daughter was only 6 months old. “I always thought I wanted to do obstetrics/gynecology nursing, so it was great,” she said.

On-going learning experiences contribute to her job satisfaction, said Ms Vacaro. “I am certified in in-patient obstetrics, which is a nursing specialty, I’ve had additional training for labor and delivery, and I am also a lactation counselor working with new moms to help with breastfeeding issues. Getting further training gives you more skills to build on,” Ms Vacaro explained.

Being a nurse in the hospital closest to her hometown means that Ms Vacaro has participated in bringing many Newtown children into the world. “It’s fun when I see kids around town and know I was part of the bigger picture.” She is always careful to find out if local patients want her in the delivery room with them, though. “It’s a very private thing, and not everyone is comfortable with having someone from town or someone who knows them in the room,” she said.

She has found that in a profession that suffers from a high burnout rate, it is important to look beyond the day-to-day grind. “There is a spiritual aspect in nursing for me,” she said. “There’s a good feeling going into work each day and knowing that you’re there for a reason. Your job is more than just a job and you have to realize that you are there for a bigger purpose.”

Linda Thomas knew from the time that she was in third grade that she wanted to be a nurse. She received her RN from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, and after putting in time as an operating room nurse and an oncology nurse, she settled into the Emergency Room at Danbury Hospital in 1988.

Being an emergency room nurse means something different every day, she said. “I was looking to not be bored, and the ER certainly offers that.”

The biggest difference between being an ER nurse and a floor nurse, said Ms Thomas, is the patient volume that is handled in the ER. “You never know how many people will come in. It’s not a controlled environment,” she said. She loves having a job that means moving quickly and thinking quickly, though. “You have to be ready and come up with a quick plan of care in the ER,” she said.

Like the other nurses, the reward is in the results she sees from caring. “It’s a good feeling when I see someone a few months after they have been in the ER and they are better,” she said.

In honor of the women and men who devote their lives to the practice of nursing, President Richard Nixon in 1974 designated the week of May 9–15 as National Nursing Week. The International Council of Nurses has celebrated Nurses’ Day since 1965 on May 12.

Take time to give thanks for the skills and knowledge nurses possess and for the care that is bestowed upon others by these health care professionals. Thank a nurse. They truly do have their fingers on the pulse of the nation.