As a writer at Voalte, I have the opportunity to work with our marketing team, software engineers, salespeople and support specialists (or BFFs, as we fondly refer to them). It’s especially a pleasure to spend time with our on-staff nurses, who bring a unique perspective to the products we build and the services we offer. For National Nurses Week, I sat down with Melissa Ross, Clinical Nurse Lead, and Kate Cotroneo, BFF, and asked them about their experiences as hospital nurses.Melissa Ross: I work with patients who are recovering from open heart surgery. The most gratifying part of my job as a nurse is watching how quickly patients progress. When they start out in the ICU, they can’t get out of bed and are in so much pain. Only a week later, they are walking laps around the unit, getting ready to go home and have a whole new attitude toward life.
Kate Cotroneo: I’ll never forget one of the first patients I worked with in the ICU. He was about 60 years old and had a heart attack. He was restricted from eating or drinking anything, so when I finally was able to give him a drink of water, he said to me, “Honey, that was the nectar of the gods!” It was so nice to be able to take care of him and watch him recover, and he was so grateful.
Melissa: Some of my favorite patients are the ones who are hospitalized long enough that I form a real relationship with them. I hear about their life, listen to their stories and get to know who they were before they got sick. We have patients who come back and visit the nurses on my unit.
Kate: When I’m caring for someone who is hooked up to machines and with tubes all over the place, it’s important to remember that they are still a person. Even if they are not conscious, I talk to them and tell them what I’m doing. And the patient isn’t the only one who needs to be taken care of. Their families are sometimes even more sensitive than the sick or injured person.
Melissa: The hardest part is dealing with patients dying. I feel so down and depressed every time. I’m there as a nurse to help people heal, and even if they are older and sick, it’s still hard. Having a spiritual background helps me deal with the situation.
Kate: As unfortunate as it is, it’s the circle of life. Whether a patient is 25 or 85, as nurses it’s our responsibility to do whatever we can to take care of them. I was working once with a nurse tech who had been on the job for nearly 30 years. She told me, “We’re just doing God’s work until he takes them home.”
As we wrap up National Nurses Week, we salute all nurses everywhere. We are especially grateful to our own staff nurses, who split their time between caring for patients and helping Voalte create healthcare technologies that make the difficult job of nursing a little bit easier.
Photo from left to right: Melissa Ross, Clinical Nurse Lead, and Kate Cotroneo, BFF