Angela Yaw, RN

Registered Nurse at Northwest Surgical Hospital in Oklahoma City.

story and photo by James Coburn, Staff Writer

Angela Yaw was inspired to become a nurse when her stepmother was in nursing school. Angela was just a child.
“I thought it was very neat. When she was in class, we didn’t have a babysitter so sometimes I would go sit in the class with her,” said Yaw, a registered nurse at Northwest Surgical Hospital in Oklahoma City. “I found it very intriguing. I would color her anatomy books. I just got sucked in as a kid, so with that I always told her I wanted to be a nurse, too. And so, I grew up wanting to be a nurse because I thought it was neat. I always cared for people and wanted to be helpful for my grandparents. And from that I just knew it was in me to help and care for people.”
Yaw feels joy in seeing patients walk again and returning to an active lifestyle.
Yaw has been a registered nurse for 10 years since earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. Yaw appreciates learning from other experienced nurses.
“You get to learn the tips and tricks you don’t learn from books,” she said. “I like seeing patients come up from surgery and getting them home,” Yaw said. “I prefer to be at the bedside with patients. I like to be right there with them helping them through their pain. I like to see them through from the beginning.”
About 40 nurses make-up the staff. Northwest Surgical Hospital is a nine bed, physician-owned hospital that offers pain management and surgeries involving orthopedics, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, endoscopic, spine, and general surgery. Operating suites are equipped with the latest technology, allowing surgeons to perform procedures using advanced surgical techniques.
Compassion, respect, excellence, and service are hallmarks of Northwest Surgical Hospital. It works closely with sister hospitals Community Hospital North, and Community Hospital South.
The hospital invests in learning. A lot of wisdom via shared governance trickles to leadership and is generated into best practices among the caregivers, said Lena Maxwell, RN, director of nursing for the med/surg unit of the emergency department.
“It’s a smaller hospital which is so wonderful because there is a feeling of community. Everybody is a helping hand,” Maxwell said.
Yaw found that everybody at Northwest Surgical Hospital works together as close-knit professionals, including the physicians and technical staff.
Yaw joined Northwest Surgical Hospital five years ago after serving at INTEGRIS Baptist Hospital. She loved her job there and had great preceptors, she said. Today, she loves the total patient care aspect of her career. She enjoys teaching her patients and solving any problems they may have. Nursing is more than providing pills, she said. Caring and compassion are indispensable traits, she said. Northwest Surgical Hospital allows her all the time she needs to give her patients all the care they deserve.
“That’s what I love about my job here,” Yaw said. “No matter what that is, or however intense or what it entails, I still get to give my patients the care they deserve,” she continued.
Yaw said she never dreads coming to work no matter how busy her patient load is. There have been several motivating factors for her over the years.
Recently she had a middle eastern patient who did not speak English. So, it was challenging for Yaw to bond with her patient through language. However, she was able to use a facetime iPad translator.
“When she left and she hugged me, even through all that she still thanked me, even in English. It was very touching,” Yaw said.
Having spent a decade as a nurse has given Yaw a thicker skin, yet with more empathy for people, she said. She may not make an appointment with a physician for some things that she knows the answer to. She has been a patient herself as well. She was involved in a head-on collision 12 months ago, resulting in back surgery.
“And died in back surgery. I coded,” she explained. “My coworkers at the south campus had to take care of me. We don’t want to be those patients we don’t want to be. And it definitely made me a better patient by being the nurse I want to be.”
And Kaw always finds room in life to relax and enjoy the simple things in life. During her down-time, Kaw can be found sitting by the fire petting her dog.
“I reflect on how grateful I am that I have what I have, and that life isn’t worse than what it could be,” she said.
For more information about Northwest Surgical Hospital or to join the team, visit
https://nwsurgicalokc.com/.