National Nurses Week celebrates critical component of health care
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Washington Hospital nurses Brian Rosales and Spencer Murphy pose for a picture.
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Washington Hospital nurses Brian Rosales and Spencer Murphy pose for a photograph.
Courtesy of Washington Health System
Jennifer Sworden poses for a photograph at Washington Hospital.
From emergency rooms to maternity wards and from intensive care units to skilled nursing facilities, nurses across the United States are a critical component of health care.
Since 1993, the American Nurses Association has celebrated National Nurses Week from May 6-12 as a way to elevate the profession and honor those who do its important work.
Monday marks National Nurses Day, and the Observer-Reporter is highlighting three nurses to learn more about their profession and what they find the most challenging and rewarding aspects of their career.
Brian Rosales
Brian Rosales never knows what he’s walking into each day when he comes to work at Washignton Health System’s Washington Hospital.
As a float nurse, he doesn’t know which floor he’ll be assigned to until he arrives. But that’s one of the reasons the Canonsburg resident said he loves his job.
“I work on different floors and I’m utilized in the area of greatest need,” Rosales said. “I enjoy this because I’m versatile and love to learn new things. I get to interact with different kinds of patients and different types of people every day. It keeps me on my toes.”
Rosales could be described as a lifelong learner since he decided to leave his career in finance to study nursing.
Now, three years into his first nursing job at WHS Washington Hospital, he couldn’t be happier.
“It’s very eye opening,” he said. “I always wanted to get into nursing, but making the transition was difficult because I have a family. Finally, I decided to go back to school through a night program while still working. It was well worth it.”
Rosales said his desire to be a nurse is a calling to take care of people.
“You know, making a little difference in someone’s day is rewarding,” he said. “Sometimes you just need to be there to add a level of comfort for patients and family members. I’ve found you can do this by talking with them or listening to their stories. It seems to help them through the process.”
Rosales’ schedule of two 12-hour shifts and two eight hour shifts per week requires his wife and two children to do a sort of delicate balancing act with school and baseball schedules.
“We work it out,” he said. “I’ve got a full schedule, but we kind of manage it.”
That juggling act extends into his work life as nursing often requires multitasking skills.
“Sometimes when we have four, five or six patients, we are constantly juggling the priorities including answering call buttons, dispersing medications and more,” he said. “And often times at the nurse’s station, we’re not resting. We’re actually entering clinical data into the computers about each of our patients, but our focus is to give each patient the best care possible.”
Rosales said nursing can sometimes prove to be stressful.
“At the end of the day, if you’ve done your best and you see some improvements in your patients, it’s really rewarding,” he said.
But, Rosales said he’s also glad he made the career change.
“I’ll see a person and they’ll say thanks for taking care of me,” he said. “It’s just nice to hear you made a difference during their inpatient stay. To me, that’s rewarding enough to keep going.”
Jennifer Sworden
Jennifer Sworden always loved science while growing up in Greene County. She also knew she wanted to help people, so it’s no surprise that she chose nursing as a career.
“You learn new things every day, things you never realize that people have to deal with in life,” Sworden said. “Then you add diseases into the mix and it opens up your eyes to how fragile life really is.”
Sworden worked as a traveling nurse for a few years after graduating from Waynesburg University then moved back home for a position at WHS Washington Hospital. She became a congestive heart failure nurse in 2017 and said it’s the most rewarding work she’s done.
“I help patients that are diagnosed and being treated for congestive heart failure. After being admitted to the hospital, I personally go and meet with them, talk to them and educate them on the disease process,” she said. “Then, once they are discharged, I work on creating a long-term relationship with my patients. I am available to those patients as a resource when they are home and they are following up with their outpatient visits.”
This allows Sworden to build personal relationships with her patients who can call her anytime with questions or concerns.
“I work hand-in-hand with our WHS cardiologist team and this helps keep our patient population healthy, out of the hospital and at home where they want to be,” she said.
Since Sworden’s first point of contact with a patient is when they are hospitalized, she said it’s rewarding to help them go home and provide education on how to manage their disease once they are away from the hospital.
“They rely on us to work through issues they may experience and to get our opinion on things to help them stay healthy,” Sworden said.
Sometimes Sworden teaches patients about the benefits of a low sodium diet and the dangers of fluid buildup.
Other times, she just listens.
“Before I meet them in the hospital, they don’t have anybody to turn to, they’re frustrated,” Sworden said. “They’re almost ready to throw in the towel. But it’s almost like this program has given them a new chance at life.”
Her favorite aspect of nursing is the flexibility.
“You can change from being a pediatric nurse to a geriatric nurse, a congestive heart failure nurse,” Sworden said. “You can always change your specialty in nursing. You’re never stagnant, it’s never boring. It’s always evolving and changing and I really think that engages a lot of people who stay interested. It’s fresh, it’s new.”
“I absolutely love it,” she added. “It is the most rewarding thing I could ever imagine myself doing. I’ve been a nurse for 16 years and then became a congestive hear failure nurse just three years ago. I never could have imagined anything more rewarding than what I’m doing right now.”
Spencer Murphy
Spencer Murphy has many connections to WHS Washington Hospital.
Not only was Murphy born there, she now works on the hospital’s fifth floor. Her new daughter, Paige, was also born at the hospital last summer.
Murphy said her new baby is part of the reason she loves the schedule a nursing career offers.
“It’s so flexible and convenient and there are always jobs available,” she said. “I’m currently working three 12 hour shifts a week, so I’m able to be off four days with my family, which is really convenient with a new baby in the house.”
Murphy’s position as a nurse on Five South means she deals with different types of cases every day.
“We get a lot of the stroke patients,” she said. “We also see patients with neurology issues and patients that receive peritoneal dialysis treatments.”
Murphy also occasionally has pediatric patients and helps treat cases of pneumonia, kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
“It keeps it new and interesting when you care for a variety of patients,” Murphy said. “It’s a new challenge every day.”
But tackling everything from appendicitis to pneumonia each day can also be tiring – not to mention doing that work for 12 hours at a time.
“You go to work, you’re constantly on your feet trying to think critically all day,” Murphy said. “And then you go home, get a shower and you go to bed, you wake up the next day and do it again. So, it is a long day.”
Living close to work, she said, is a blessing.
“The nice thing is I just work across town, so I don’t have much of a commute – maybe three minutes,” Murphy said. “So that makes it really nice.”
Despite long days and tired feet, she said she wouldn’t do anything else but nursing.
“My favorite thing about my job is the fact that there’s something new every day,” Murphy said. “I’m never bored and the flexibility of it – three days a week, mostly daylight – allows me to be at home with my baby. That’s great. And it’s just very rewarding.”