Nursing has changed a lot in the 27 years Lorri Bundy-Myers, BSN, RN has been in the profession.
But one thing that hasn’t waivered has been her love affair with what she does.
Bundy-Myers has been at OSU Medical Center for the last four years.
She expects to be there a lot longer.
“It’s a smaller hospital,” Bundy-Myers said of the 195-bed facility in downtown Tulsa. “I came from a larger hospital. I like the feel of a smaller hospital. I have more of an opportunity to be a mentor and a leader and share my experience and learn a lot along the way. And it’s a teaching facility. I get to see (students) first walk through the doors and then walk out when they graduate.”
“That in itself is very cool.”
Bundy-Myers works Saturdays and Sundays as house supervisor.
It’s her time to shine.
“I do it all. I start IV’s. I’m transport. I’m mediator, I fill in when administration is not there,” Bundy-Myers said. “I wear many different hats and I like that. I like having that autonomy.”
She’s always been drawn to situations where she can take charge. She served as a rapid response nurse and code blue nurse.
She previously served as a mid-level at a hospital on night shift working for a group of hospitalists answering pages and assigning patients.
“I’ve also been an ICU nurse,” said Bundy-Myers, who started as a monitor tech in 1985. “That’s pretty much all I know is ICU and trauma. That’s where my heart has always been.”
OSU Medical Center is one of the largest osteopathic teaching hospitals in the nation and serves as the official teaching hospital for the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, a 2009 U.S. News and World Report Top Ranked Graduate School.
“There’s a lot of teamwork,” she said. “You’re able to share the knowledge you have with the physicians and residents and work together as a team to have better outcomes with these patients. Our nurses’ opinions and experience are validated.”
OSU Medical is also home to Oklahoma’s top ranked Wound Care and Hyperbarics Clinic and was named a 2009 Highest Rated Emergency Department for Patient Satisfaction.
The College of Osteopathic Medicine is one of 44 osteopathic medical schools in the nation.
Two-thirds of the graduates practice in primary care (family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology) and one-third practice in specialty areas such as dermatology, neurology, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, anesthesiology and gastroenterology.
So what keeps Bundy-Myers going after nearly three decades in nursing?
“I understand people,” she said. “I understand the stress of working in the medical profession. I think it’s the compassion and the fact that I feel like I’m part of the noblest profession so it carries me through.
“I’m proud to be a nurse.”
Her family has followed in her footstops. One child is an echocardiogram tech. Another is a certified burn nurse. One of her nieces delivers babies.
Bundy-Myers has been accepted into her master’s program. She says eventually she wants to teach.
And she wants to inspire people.
“We need to get more people into nursing,” she said. “We need to go into the high schools. We need to shine different lights on different aspects of nursing and maybe change a stereotype.”
